Medicare Targets Avoidable Hospital Readmissions to Jumpstart Delivery Reform
Bundled Payment Demonstration Project Changes How Labs Would Be Paid
Efforts in the nation’s capital to reform healthcare are still in the formative stage as the new President and the new Congress consider various approaches. Meanwhile, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) started the new year by launching pilots for a bundled-service payment scheme. Not only may this be the beginning of the end of the fee-for-service payment system, but it has important implications for clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups.
The bundled payment system demonstration projects are a first step to what’s coming next. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, better known as MedPAC , released its blueprint for reforming the delivery system to Congress on March 17 in its annual Report to the Congress: Medicare Payment Policy.
