June 26, 2018 - The National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, a nonprofit network of business coalitions representing more than 12,000 purchasers spending more than $300 billion on healthcare, and Remedy Partners, an episodes-of-care company, are collaborating to help accelerate development and employer adoption of bundled payments across the country.

The two organizations are examining how best to build a national platform that will offer employers a clearer path toward adoption of episode-based payment and benefit design, and they'll test the concept with select coalitions over the next year.

The collaboration expands the ability of National Alliance coalitions and their employer/purchaser members to drive change in their respective markets. The platform would establish aspects of success in value-based models of care, and help coalitions and employers overcome barriers to episode-based care arrangements.

"We're exploring an approach that takes advantage of Remedy Partners' market leadership in bundled payments through Medicare to develop successful risk-based arrangements that can be more easily adopted by local and national employers and purchasers," said Michael Thompson, National Alliance president and CEO.

"Employer-led bundled payment can truly bring about the change required in the broken healthcare market," he said. "Working through our regional and national network of member coalitions can enable faster and more seamless execution of episode of care payment models across the country."

In January, there was positive reaction to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' new voluntary bundled payment models, which included 29 inpatient and three outpatient clinical episodes. The new bundled payments for care improvement advanced was the first time BPCI qualified as an advanced alternative payment model, and its 5 percent bonus, under MACRA.


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