Evaluating the Impact of Medicare's Joint Replacement Bundled Payment Program on the Cost and Quality of Care

The project aim is to evaluate BPCI Model 2’s effects on quality and costs of care for participants that chose bundled payment for CJR of the lower extremity. The analyses will include results by characteristics of provider organizations and bundled arrangements (e.g. 30, 60, or 90-day episode length), as well as the patient population involved. The project team will use a quasi-experimental design to control for provider and patient selection effects and a difference-in-difference method to determine results. The analysis will compare results for participants and non-participants in BPCI Model 2 for CJR using data from CMS Medicare FFS claims data and the AMA Master File.

 Provide actionable insight into bundling’s cost and quality impact, particularly as it evolves from a voluntary to mandatory program
 Raise public awareness about topic amid the “volume- to value-based reimbursement” shift
 Target audience: CMS, policymakers, providers