The Commonwealth Fund releases its report Confronting Costs: Stabilizing U.S. Health Spending While Moving Toward a High Performance Health Care System. The Fund’s Commission on a High Performance Health System “recommends a set of synergistic provider payment reforms, consumer incentives, and systemwide reforms to confront costs while improving health system performance. This approach could slow spending by a cumulative $2 trillion by 2023—if begun now with public and private payers acting in concert.” Included in this recommendation is bundled hospital payments:
Bundle hospital payments to focus on total costs and patient outcomes. Accelerate the implementation of provider reimbursement approaches in which a single payment is made for all services provided during an episode of care involving a hospital stay, including postacute services for specified procedures and conditions, for patients in Medicare, Medicaid, other public programs, and private plans participating in the new health insurance exchanges. . .
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