CMS to bundle payments for CABG, expand orthopedic program

Editor's Note

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will select 98 hospitals in metropolitan areas to take part in a 5-year mandatory program to test a bundled-payment model for myocardial infarction and coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) procedures, the July 25 Modern Healthcare reports.

CMS will also expand its hip and knee replacement bundled-payment model to cover hip and femur fractures.

CMS is accepting comments on the proposals for 60 days. The proposed programs are scheduled to start July 2017.

The CMS took another step in the bundled payment journey Monday, proposing mandatory bundled payment models for heart attacks and bypass surgery that would go into effect next summer. They would constitute the first cardiac procedures and only the second set of medical treatments to be ushered into a mandated version of this model.