Center for American Progress

: Lowering Costs and Improving Quality in Health Care: Bundling as a Payment Reform Innovation
Past Event


Lowering Costs and Improving Quality in Health Care: Bundling as a Payment Reform Innovation


10:00 - 11:30 AM EDT

To download a full transcript of this event, please click here.

Central to the premise of health reform is the effort to simultaneously improve the quality of our health care and lower its costs. Meeting this challenge will require changing the way in which we use and pay for care. While accountable care organizations have received the lion’s share of public attention, the Affordable Care Act authorizes a pilot program to bundle Medicare payments around “episodes” of hospital care—paying collectively for the services that an individual receives during and after hospitalization. That is because many believe bundles have the potential to address two critical cost drivers in the health care system—volume and fragmentation. Between now and 2013, CMS is tasked with developing the most effective bundling pilots possible—building on experience from public- and private-sector initiatives to determine what works and what does not work.

Please join us for a discussion of the most effective design features for bundles that CMS should consider. We will also discuss lessons from the private sector.

Introductory remarks:
Nancy-Ann DeParle, White House Deputy Chief of Staff

Panelists:
Francois de Brantes, National Coordinator, Prometheus Payment
Judy Feder, Visiting Fellow, Urban Institute; Professor, Georgetown University
Richard J. Gilfillan, M.D., Acting Director, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Moderator:
Neera Tanden, Chief Operating Officer, Center for American Progress