In a sign of the uncertain  viability of the bundled-payment  hopes   of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services,  Universal Health Services, a hospital and behavioral-health company, may quit Medicare’s voluntary test of bundled payments “until some of the kinks are worked out,” Steve Filton, the company’s chief financial officer, told Modern Healthcare.

Universal Health Services’ enthusiasm for Medicare payment bundles has faded as the company has struggled to get useful data from federal officials, Mr.  Filton said.
The King of Prussia, Pa.-based company is trying to decide whether to withdrawn  all its 25 acute-care hospitals from Medicare’s Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Initiative, which as of last August included about about 2,100 acute-care hospitals, medical groups and other  healthcare facilities.

The Universal Health news came a month before Medicare is due to start its first mandatory test of bundled payments across 67 markets.

Modern Healthcare notes bundled-payment programs  “are central to the CMS’s push to increase the number of Medicare agreements that reward hospitals for quality improvement and better cost control.”’