Miranda Franco, writing in FierceHealthcare, discusses the future of bundled payments. She’s a senior policy adviser at the law firm of Holland & Knight in the District of Columbia and a member of the firm’s national Healthcare & Life Sciences Team.
Among her observations:
“HHS Secretary Tom Price, M.D., {has} repeatedly expressed concern about CMS’s mandatory bundled-payment programs. Price is an orthopedic surgeon and former Republican congressman who served as the chairman of the House Budget Committee and as a member of the health subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee. In that capacity, Price opposed mandatory value-based payment models. {He has often indicated he opposes any cuts in the incomes of U.S. physicians, who are by far the highest paid in the world.}
“{However} bundled payment models are likely here to stay. Given the importance of cost containment in healthcare and the desire to expand APMs and Advanced APMs under MACRA, bundled payment models will likely continue to expand in some form. The continued development of these models is largely due to the promise bundled payments show in reducing costs, while maintaining high-quality care.
“In addition to Medicare, the ACA also pushed insurers, physicians, hospitals and employers to launch their own bundled payment reforms, and they too are expected to continue. We will likely see more of these models developed in the coming months and years, the only question is for what conditions and whether they be mandatory or voluntary.’’
To read her whole essay, please hit this link.
