CMS expands bundled payment initiative

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service (CMS) is ramping up its Bundled Payment for Care Improvement Initiative with the addition of hundreds of providers.

More than 2,100 acute care hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, physician group practices, long-term care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation facilities and home health agencies transitioned from a preparatory period to a risk-bearing implementation period in which they assumed financial risk for episodes of care. The participants include 360 organizations that have entered into agreements with CMS to participate in the initiative and an additional 1,755 providers who have partnered with those organizations, according to a release. CMS defines an episode of care as the set of services provided to treat a clinical condition or procedure, such as a heart bypass surgery or a hip replacement.

Through the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement initiative, CMS is testing how bundled payments for clinical episodes can result in better care, smarter spending and healthier people. 

The initiative includes four models of bundled payments tied to inpatient hospital admission. The models vary by the types of providers involved and the length of the bundle after the hospitalization.