When employers adopt bundled payments, surgical costs can drop by 11%, study finds

Implementing bundled payments for several types of surgery helped health plans save nearly 11% on those services compared with previous payment models, and the plans were able to pass those savings along to employers and patients, according to a new study published in Health Affairs.

Bundled payments saved an average of $4,229 per procedure, researchers find

For the study, researchers from RAND Corp. set out to determine how a commercial health plan’s implementation of bundled payments for certain orthopedic and surgical procedures could affect the plan’s costs for those procedures when compared with previous payment models.

To do so, the researchers analyzed data from Carrum Health on payments for 2,372 procedures covered by self-insured employers between 2016 and...