Using Medicare and American Hospital Association data, Health Affairs recently compared characteristics and baseline performance among hospitals in Medicare’s voluntary (Bundled Payments for Care Improvement initiative, or BPCI) and mandatory (Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement Model, or CJR) joint replacement bundled payment programs.
Findings from their analysis include (per Becker’s Hospital Review):
- BPCI hospitals generally were larger than CJR hospitals, and had higher average Medicare patient volume (nearly 7,200 compared to about 5,300).
- BPCI hospitals were more likely to be nonprofit, teaching hospitals and sole community providers compared to CJR hospitals.
- Both BPCI and CJR hospitals were similar as far as baseline readmission rates and mortality rates.
- BPCI hospitals had greater cost from institutional post-acute care, primarily due to inpatient rehabilitation facility cost, but researchers note the differences are not large.
The study’s authors concluded: “These findings suggest that while both voluntary and mandatory approaches can play a role in engaging hospitals in bundled payment, mandatory programs can produce more robust, generalizable evidence. Either mandatory or additional targeted voluntary programs may be required to engage more hospitals in bundled payment programs.”
MedBen Analytics is used by BPCI and CJR participants alike, and based on CMS results and client feedback, both groups have realized success with our reporting portal. Our goal is to make sure that all providers, regardless of why they participate, can benefit from the bundled payment model.
We developed MedBen Analytics to give providers the insights they need to improve performance – and we earn and keep clients by proving that bundled payments save them time and money over traditional fee-for-service. If you ever have questions about how our services can benefit your business, please call MedBen President & CEO Kurt Harden at 888-633-2364 or email medbenanalytics@medben.com.