NEJM Perspective Examines MedPAC Recommendations for Bundled Payments

"Collective Accountability for Medical Care -- Toward Bundled Medicare Payments," New England Journal of Medicine: In the NEJM perspective, Medicare Payment Advisory Commission officials discuss a recommendation made in June to bundle Medicare payments for certain hospital services, such as those for congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cardiac bypass surgery. The authors write that bundling payments for multiple providers would create incentives for providers to hold down costs, improve efficiency and lead to better coordinated inpatient and outpatient care. The authors also discuss other MedPAC recommendations related to bundled payments (Hackbarth et al., NEJM, 7/3).