CMS extends bundled payment initiative

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will extend the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement initiative for Model 2, 3 and 4 awardees who choose to participate for two more years, CMS Acting Principal Deputy Administrator Patrick Conway, M.D., announced today. The extension will “provide a more robust and rigorous evaluation of the initiative and determine whether the efforts of bundling payments are successful in providing better care while spending health care dollars more wisely,” Conway said. The initiative currently has 321 awardees, entities who assume financial liability for any of 48 clinical episodes of care. Model 2 involves retrospective bundled payment for an acute and post-acute care episode; Model 3 involves retrospective payment for post-acute care triggered after an acute care hospital stay; and Model 4 involves a prospective bundled payment for all services provided during an acute care hospital stay.