Designing a bundled payment program for your ambulatory surgery center (ASC) is a complex process because the pieces of the puzzle change every time a new bundle is created. But the time is now to accelerate your center’s efforts to execute: bundled payments are expected to be 17% of all medical payment types by 2022.
Chris Stine, Regent’s Director of Bundled Payments & Corporate Compliance Officer, says providers and payers are beginning to recognize the opportunity bundled payments offer to greatly reduce costs, but acknowledges that it isn’t always easy.
“Structuring the bundle to ensure every partner is aligned and executes is the biggest challenge,” Stine says. “Value-based care means sharing risk. Fully understanding all risk factors and how everyone interacts is crucial to developing a program that maximizes the opportunity for the surgeons and ASCs involved.”
Regent Surgical Health has developed a new white paper designed to help physician practices and ASCs overcome the steep learning curve of understanding and organizing bundled payments. The new guide outlines strategies to help organizations close the knowledge gap as they move from fee-for-service to value-based payment systems, negotiate each bundle, and identify key stakeholders.
In this blog, we’ll explore the importance to successful execution of identifying key stakeholders.
Surgeons willing to collaborate with other providers and accept responsibility for the patient’s episode of care are in an excellent position to thrive in a bundled payments environment. But it is important for them to identify the right partners for value-based care and to fully understand the motivations of each for being involved. Choosing the right bundle partners means understanding the needs and concerns of several types of stakeholders:
- Surgeons
- Facility / ASC
- Anesthesia Providers
- Physical Therapy and Home Care
- Implant Vendors
“The opportunities presented by value-based care and bundles are huge for ASCs,” says Dr. Chris Nanson, partner/surgeon at Oregon Surgical Institute. “We need very high success rates and patient satisfaction rates because we are under a microscope. The question is whether physicians will stay in the driver’s seat by proving we can manage this effectively, or whether we drop the ball. If we take the best care of patients and collect the data to prove we’re doing that, it’s a gigantic opportunity.”
To succeed with bundled payments, it is also important to have someone lead and broker the relationships between all the parties. The new white paper outlines criteria to help select the right person or organization to take on this role.
Ready to design and execute a bundled payment program? Download the full whitepaper.