Can Bundled Payments Help Control Health Care Costs?

The U.S. spends more per person on health care than any other major industrialized nation. In fact, costs now reach about 18% of GDP and so anything that can slow the climb – or reverse it – tends to get attention. One promising idea for blunting costs comes from new research on how Medicare experimented with bundled payments for knee and hip replacements. That saved about 5% of total costs. Beyond the monetary gain, that approach also appeared to raise the overall quality of care. Amol Navathe, a professor of medicine and health policy at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, was part of the research team. He joined the Knowledge@Wharton show, which airs on Wharton Business Radio, SiriusXM channel 111, to discuss the findings.