The Impact of Medicare Bundled Payments

Bundled payments (BP) are a key part of Medicare's shift away from the traditional fee-for-service (FFS) payment model. The investigators propose to study a nationwide randomized-controlled trial (RCT) of bundled payments for knee and hip replacements that was designed and implemented by CMS and launched in April 2016. Randomization was conducted at the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) level with 67 MSAs and about 800 hospitals assigned to the treatment group. The investigators will examine the impact of bundled payments on Medicare spending, utilization, and quality. Study findings should be directly relevant for the design of payments for knee and hip replacements, two common and expensive medical procedures. Average impacts, as well as variation in impact across types of providers and markets may also shed light on economic mechanisms, which should be relevant for bundled payment initiatives under consideration for other medical services.