Cost Savings and Physician Responses to Global Bundled Payments for Medicare Heart Bypass Surgery

  • 1 January 1997
    • journal article
    • Vol. 19  (1) , 41-57
Abstract
In 1991, the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) began the Medicare Participating Heart Bypass Center Demonstration, in which hospitals and physicians are paid a single negotiated global price for all inpatient care for heart bypass patients. During the first 27 months of the demonstration, the Government and beneficiaries together saved more than $17 million on bypass surgery in four participating institutions. Average total cost per case fell in three of the four hospitals during the 1990-93 period as the alignment of physician and hospital incentives resulted in physicians changing their practice patterns to shorten stays and reduce costs.