By Joanne Finnegan – April 20, 2017

The largest orthopedic private practice group in the country hopes to be among the first to negotiate bundled payments for seven surgical procedures.

The Centers for Advanced Orthopaedics, which is centered in Virginia, the District of Columbia and Maryland, is currently working to develop seven initial bundles for various orthopedic surgeries, Louis Levitt, M.D., the centers’ vice president, said in an interview with FierceHealthcare.

It will be among the first orthopedic private practice groups to participate in a bundled payment program, which Levitt said is expected to decrease patient costs and improve clinical outcomes by putting doctors in control of the patient’s entire episode of care.

Levitt, an orthopedic surgeon, has taken the lead in building the group’s bundled payment offerings which will initially include total hip, total knee, partial knee, knee scope, cervical spine fusion, anterior cruciate ligament and rotator cuff procedures.

“This is the value-based medicine,” Levitt said. “You’ve got to get the best value for the amount of effort and dollars you spend now on healthcare. Engaging the doctors in a risk-sharing environment is the only way to make it happen.”

The practice is currently negotiating with payers in the region and expects that by the end of 2017 it will have an agreement in place with the largest, Blue Cross, to begin the bundled payments, he said.

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