Speakers discuss solutions for health care inequalities and the bundled payment system

As CMS continues to transition from a fee-for-service to a value-based delivery and payment model, providing the same quality of care to all patients has been a challenge. Physicians may feel incentivized by hospitals to not provide care for patients with complex medical needs and demographic challenges to reduce the cost of the episode of care and the risk of penalties for readmissions. “The challenge is that patients who still need our care, desperately need our care, are being marginalized by the payment models that we have developed to drive value,” Mary I. O’Connor, MD, chair of Movement is Life and director of the Center for Musculoskeletal Care at Yale School of Medicine, said in a webinar on health disparities in Medicare bundled payments hosted by Movement is Life. “This is an unintended consequence, in my opinion, of how we have approached driving value and improving health care in this country. We need risk stratification to recognize that all patients are not the same.”