Dr. Brian Gantwerker on the pitfalls of bundled payments

Spine

Brian R. Gantwerker, MD, founder of the Craniospinal Center of Los Angeles discusses the whether he will participate in CMS' Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Advanced, a new voluntary episode model slated to begin Oct. 1.

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Question: Will you be participating in BPCI Advanced? If not, why?

Dr. Brian Gantwerker: From an ethical standpoint bundled care is truncating our ability to care for patients. The misguided efforts of Medicare to contain costs continue to miss the mark — they need to look at pharmaceutical companies and at their own reimbursement patterns.

By not paying doctors for the work they do, they continue to drive down morale, cheapen the work ethic and worsen the quality of work. Not to mention to encourage false outcome reports.

 

 

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