RAND Study: Carrum Health’s Bundled Payment Model Leads to Savings for Employers and Patients
Flat-rate Bundled Pricing Model a Win/Win for Employers/Patients
Healthcare spending is continually increasing in the US, now up to 
almost $4trillion, and it isn’t projected to slow down in the coming years. One effective solution is for employers to pay medical providers a flat rate for a bundle of related services and incentivize patients by waiving cost-sharing payments. A study byRAND Corporation, a nonprofit research organization, suggests the bundled payment model used by Carrum Health is proven to save money while maintaining high-quality care.
The study, published in Health Affairs, found that using a flat-rate approach saved approximately 11% overall on procedures including joint replacements, spinal fusion, and bariatric surgeries. The average prices when people used Carrum Health providers, including our very own Crovetti Orthopaedics, were up to 41% lower than other providers.
The bundled payment model is advantageous for all parties: patients are financially incentivized to choose doctors that have been chosen for superior performance, employers save considerably, and providers get paid directly instead of having to bill insurance companies while also getting a higher volume of patients.
Similarly, High Performance Providers uses this payment model to connect high-quality healthcare providers with self-funded health plans, often saving plans 40-60% of health spending. We operate in the areas of orthopedics and sports medicine, knee and hip replacement, bariatric and surgical weight loss, spine/musculoskeletal, and general surgery.
Sources:
Whaley, Christopher. “Bundled Payments for Surgical Procedures With Copay Waivers Creates Substantial Cost Savings.” RAND Corporation, 1 Mar. 2021, www.rand.org/news/press/2021/03/01/index1.html.
King, Robert. “RAND: Bundled Payment Models That Waived Cost Sharing Led to Major Savings.” FierceHealthcare, 1 Mar. 2021, www.fiercehealthcare.com/payer/rand-bundled-payment-models-waived-cost-sharing-led-to-major-savings.
Kacik, Alex. “Bundled Payments Reduce Surgery Costs by 10.7%.” Modern Healthcare, 1 Mar. 2021, www.modernhealthcare.com/payment/bundled-payments-reduce-surgery-costs-107.
Whaley, Christopher M. “An Employer-Provider Direct Payment Program Is Associated With Lower Episode Costs: Health Affairs Journal.” Health Affairs, 1 Mar. 2021, www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.01488.
Tozzi, John. Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, 1 Mar. 2021, www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-01/employers-cut-health-costs-with-incentives-for-patients-doctors.
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