Value of voluntary bundled-payment program unclear

Editor's Note

For the third year in a row, researchers with the Lewin Group couldn’t determine whether Medicare’s voluntary Bundled Payment for Care Improvement initiative cuts costs and improves care, the October 31 Modern Healthcare reports.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) funded analysis found that although providers were starting to benefit from the initiative, it remains unclear whether the savings and improved quality actually were a result of the program.

Despite the Lewin Group’s inconclusive findings, hospital and policy insiders hope the Trump administration doesn’t reverse course and embrace mandatory models, the authors note. Instead, the administration should use the research as a road map to develop better voluntary models.

For the third year in a row, researchers cannot determine whether a voluntary Medicare bundled-pay initiative actually cut costs and improved care. The results come as the Trump administration seeks to scrap mandatory models in exchange for voluntary ones. <meta property=

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