Hospitals participating in a bundled payment initiative for patients receiving joint replacements are more likely to narrow the network of nursing homes they use.
That’s according to a new survey of hip surgeons, published this week in the Journal of Arthroplasty. Researchers polled more than 73 orthopedic experts, 32 of which are taking part in Medicare’s Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement initiative, which holds hospitals accountable for all services provided during an episode of care.
They found that CJR hospitals were “significantly more likely” to report that they’d used a narrow network of SNFs to bolster care and shorten lengths of stay at about 83%, compared to 47% for those not taking part.
More surgeons at CJR hospitals also said they were developing narrow networks for home health, engaging in telehealth services for physician therapy and had decreased use of SNFs following surgery.
Authors noted that previous studies has found that narrow SNF networks are associated with lower readmission rates, potentially because of increased focus on the shift to a post-acute setting, and dedicated hospital teams that visit SNFs to treat patients in place.
“Bundled payments create unique incentives to invest in post-discharge care to more effectively manage PAC costs and we find significant differences between CJR and non-CJR hospitals only for programs focused on post-discharge outcomes or costs,” University of Southern California researchers concluded.
