The PROMETHEUS Bundled Payment Experiment
Fee-for-service payment is blamed for many of the problems observed in the U.S. health care system. One of the leading alternative payment models proposed in the Affordable Care Act of 2010 is bundled payment, which provides payment for all of the care a patient needs over the course of a defined clinical episode, instead of paying for each discrete service.
We evaluated the initial “road test” of PROMETHEUS Payment, one of several bundled payment pilot projects. The project has faced substantial implementation challenges, and none of the three pilot sites had executed contracts or made bundled payments as of May 2011. The pilots have taken longer to set up than expected, primarily because of the complexity of the payment model and the fact that it builds on the existing fee-for-service payment system and other complexities of health care.
Participants continue to see promise and value in the bundled payment model, but the pilot results suggest that the desired benefits of this and other payment reforms may take time and considerable effort to materialize.
Linking Community Development and Health
- 1. How the Health and Community Development Sectors are Combining Forces to Improve Health and Well-Being
- 2. Building the Scaffold to Improve Health Care to Advance Americans' Health
- 3. Partnerships Among Community Development, Public Health, and Health Care Could Improve the Well-Being of Low-Income People
- 4. Despite Obstacles, Considerable Potential Exists for More Robust Federal Policy on Community Development and Health
- 5. Bringing Researchers and Community Developers Together to Revitalize a Public Housing Project and Improve Health
- 6. Community Health Centers and Community Development Financial Institutions
- 7. Training New Community Health, Food Service, and Environmental Protection Workers Could Boost Health, Jobs, and Growth
- 8. The PROMETHEUS Bundled Payment Experiment
- 9. Mayo Clinic Employees Responded to New Requirements for Cost Sharing by Reducing PossiblyUnneeded Health Services Use
- 10. Gaps in Residency Training Should be Addressed to Better Prepare Doctors for a Twenty-First-Century Delivery System
- 11. How the National Prevention Council Can Overcome Key Challenges and Improve Americans' Health
- 12. Evolving Brand-Name and Generic Drug Competition May Warrant a Revisionof the Hatch-Waxman Act
- 13. Strengthening Children's Oral Health