Industry Insights

by Jonathan Pearce, CPA, FHFMA and Coleen Kivlahan, MD, MSPH

Applicants to the Medicare Bundled Payment for Care Improvement (BPCI) program will be busy spending December identifying episodes for which they should participate when they "go live" in April. Several episode families are common candidates for participation, and an overview of their characteristics is described below.

Note: this article was updated based on a webinar from CMS on 11/6/14.

Achieving success in the Medicare Bundled Medicare Bundled Payment for Care Improvement initiative requires analyzing historical data to identify the opportunities and risks associated in each of the episode families, as well as the other decision points in BPCI participation. Careful evaluation of opportunities and risks before making participation decisions can pay off significantly when the at-risk period begins.