The American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons approved of CMS' proposed rule to the comprehensive care for joint replacement model in a Feb. 28 statement.
The program seeks to reduce Medicare costs by testing whether bundled payments and quality measures for hip and knee replacements encourage hospitals and providers to work together to improve care.
CMS plans to add outpatient hip and knee replacements to the definition of an episode of care and implement a new risk adjustment program to account for patient health complexity, which the AAOS is in favor of.
However, the organization opposes the "mandatory nature" of the comprehensive care for joint replacement model, according to Wilford Gibson, MD, the council on advocacy chair at AAOS.
"CMS' desire to readjust the target price using only the most recent year of claims data — as opposed to three years' worth — is likely to hamper financial performance of model participants and have other unintended consequences," Dr. Gibson said.
"We are also concerned with the agency's decision to continue with hospital leadership as opposed to physician leadership and exclude voluntary participants, many of whom have invested significant time, energy, and resources promoting value-based care," he added.
AAOS will provide CMS with formal comments on the proposed changes by the April 24 deadline.