From the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) blog:
Our Hopes for the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement Model
Today’s launch of the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement Model (CJR) is a major step toward transforming care delivery in Medicare. Why? Because this model looks to improve care and quality for the most common procedures that Medicare beneficiaries have, hip and knee replacements. In 2014, more than 400,000 Medicare beneficiaries received a hip or knee replacement, costing more than $7 billion for the hospitalizations alone. Despite the high volume of these surgeries, quality and costs of care for these hip and knee replacement surgeries still vary greatly among providers. For instance, the rate of complications, like infections or implant failures, after surgery can be more than three times higher for procedures performed at some hospitals than at others.
The model aligns with what matters to beneficiaries—better outcomes for a whole episode of care. The model includes patient-reported outcomes after surgery and incentivizes better care coordination. One beneficiary said it best when she described that what she cared about for her hip replacement was getting out of the hospital as quickly as possible without an infection or complication and then being able to go back to playing with her grandkids and gardening. The model incentivizes a system that aligns with her goals and the goals of so many beneficiaries.
We are excited about the CJR model’s potential to improve the quality and efficiency of care for Medicare beneficiaries, to contribute toward a health care system that delivers better care, spends our dollars more wisely, and leads to healthier Americans.
How will CJR work? About 800 hospitals located in 67 selected markets will be accountable for the costs and quality of related care from the time of the hip or knee replacement surgery through a post-hospitalization period. They will receive target prices for these joint replacement cases at the beginning of each year. The target price represents expected spending for lower joint replacement episodes, including the initial hospital stay for the procedure and 90 days after discharge from the hospital. If patients receive high quality care and spending is less than the target, a hospital may receive an additional payment from Medicare. If their spending is above the target, hospitals may be required to repay Medicare for a portion of the difference.
We expect this incentive to coordinate the services a patient receives before, during, and after surgery will encourage hospitals and clinicians to partner with nursing facilities, home health agencies and other providers of rehabilitation services to provide seamless, high quality care.
We want hospitals to be successful under this model because success means that Medicare’s beneficiaries will receive better quality care. In the run up to today’s launch, our staff individually contacted the program coordinators at all 800 hospitals to offer data and other resources to assist them on this multi-year journey. CMS will continue to collaborate with hospitals and their physicians and other clinicians to provide support and share best practices.
What will beneficiaries notice? First, beneficiaries will continue to choose their doctor, the hospital where they receive treatment, and the type and location of rehabilitation care they receive. If their hospital is a model participant, they will get a letter explaining the model. Patients whose chosen hospital participates in the model should experience improved care coordination. For instance, we expect that nursing facilities will understand a patient’s needs better before that patient is discharged from the hospital.
The CJR model offers a chance for hospitals, doctors, and other providers to partner with CMS in furthering our shared goal of improving the quality of care for beneficiaries undergoing the most common inpatient surgery, lower extremity joint replacements. The model is part of the Administration’s broader strategy to improve the health care system by paying providers for what works, unlocking health care data, and finding new ways to coordinate and integrate care to improve quality.
We are excited to begin this groundbreaking initiative and will work with hospitals, physicians, and other providers throughout the model to ensure they have the tools to succeed and improve upon what they do best: provide high quality, coordinated care to beneficiaries.
For more information about the CJR model, please visit: https://innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/cjr.