The New Year brings a big decision for the more than 6,600 providers newly enrolled in Medicare’s Bundled Payments for Care Improvement (BPCI) program. If you’re one of these new BPCI participants, do you assume the risk of bundled payment for at least one care episode or drop out of the program? You have until April 1.

Meanwhile, employers and insurers are engaging providers in bundled payment initiatives ranging from joint replacements to cancer care. Many are just getting underway, while some have already delivered lower costs and better quality.

Not all bundled payments are created equal. Whether for Medicare or a commercial payer, bundled payment success will come to those organizations that take a bottom up approach, rather than simply putting prices on unchanged care processes.

Instead, with the Numerof Market Model as a guide they dig deep into their processes, defining services, modeling financials, mastering underlying cost structures, managing variation in cost and quality, aligning key stakeholders, setting quality guarantees and commercializing clinical products.

How will you succeed? Is your organization ready for bundled payment, whether commercial or government? Here are three questions you need to ask:

1. How well do understand your costs at an activity based level?
2. To what extent are you able effectively to manage variation in cost and quality?
3. How much support can you expect from physicians and other stakeholders?

If you’re serious about successfully structuring and implementing new payment models, give us a call. Numerof works with clients to adapt and succeed in today’s evolving healthcare landscape. From competitive strategy to implementation of new payment and delivery models, we have solutions. Read more about our perspectives and solutions for healthcare delivery.