Some provisions of Medicare’s first mandatory bundled payment model were recently delayed, but federal officials say new mandatory models still will launch in July.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently issued an announcement that application of some early provisions of the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) model will be delayed from Feb. 18 to March 21.
But the delay did not impact the CJR expansion model—called the Surgical Hip and Femur Fracture Treatment (SHFFT) model—or the Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) and the Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) models, all of which begin July 1, CMS officials said in a Feb. 22 conference call, according to industry participants.
The delayed CJR provisions include a requirement for participating hospitals to have physicians deliver a written notice to beneficiaries describing their participation in the CJR program, advisers said.
“It’s seemingly small, technical specs that were impacted by the memorandum, and even those delays were not significant,” Brian Fuller, vice president for value-based care for naviHealth, said in an interview.
