Medicare bundled-payments rules expected before 2013 deadline

A CMS official said the release of these health law regulations are being accelerated and will, at least initially, focus on acute- and post-acute care.

Modern Healthcare: Release Of Bundled-Payment Rules To Quicken
Regulators will accelerate release of rules implementing bundled payments under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, according to a senior official at the CMS. Dr. Richard Gilfillan, acting director of the new Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation at the CMS, said at a Monday policy discussion at a liberal Washington think tank that the rules implementing bundled payments for Medicare providers will come before their 2013 deadline. In addition, he expects bundled payments to initially focus on the acute- and post-acute-care segments because private-sector initiatives have already succeeded in those areas (Daly, 7/18).

CQ HealthBeat: A Speedier Launch For Medicare Bundled Payments?
Accountable Care Organizations may have grabbed plenty of attention when it comes to coordinated care in Medicare. But the ACO program's cousin — payment bundling — is also on the way, and maybe sooner than expected. Under the health overhaul law, a large-scale pilot program is to be established to try out payment bundling — a single payment for multiple hospital services from a number of providers received by one patient, rather than the traditional fee-for-service payment system. The voluntary program is supposed to begin by Jan. 1, 2013, and continue for five years. If it's successful in cutting costs while maintaining or improving quality, the secretary of Health and Human Services could expand the pilot (Norman, 7/18).