August 16, 2017 – AAOS

Washington, DC–Yesterday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a proposed rule that addresses significant concerns raised by the American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) related to mandatory bundled payment programs. First, the proposed rule would reduce the number of mandatory geographic areas participating in the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation’s Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) model from 67 to 34. In addition, the proposed rule would allow CJR participants in the 33 remaining areas to participate on a voluntary basis. CMS also proposes to make participation in the CJR model voluntary for ALL low volume and rural hospitals in all of the CJR geographic areas. Finally, CMS is proposing to cancel the Surgical Hip and Femur Fracture Treatment (SHFFT) payment model and others that were scheduled to begin on January 1, 2018.

AAOS commends CMS for this important proposal and, after further analyzing all details in the rule, AAOS will be submitting comments by the October 16 due date.

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