Home Health & Hospice Week

Bundled payments across care providers may be coming your way sooner than you think. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says 360 organizations have entered into agreements to participate in the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement initiative and an additional 1,755 providers have partnered with those organizations, according to a release.

Payments will be bundled across care settings, including home care, for episodes of care including those for hip replacements, CMS notes. “By focusing on outcomes for an episode of care, rather than separate procedures in care delivery, we are incentivizing hospitals, doctors and other providers to work together to provide high quality, coordinated care for patients,” says CMS Chief Medical Officer Patrick Conway. More information is at http://innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/bundled-payments.