The new era of health care: Catholic health initiatives journey with bundled payment for care improvement in total joint replacements

his study examined the relationships between total costs of care and total readmission rates for Medicare patients undergoing major joint replacement of the lower extremity (knee/hip arthroplasty) at one of four Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) facilities participating in both Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the BPCI program by using complete Medicare claims data for beneficiaries. Both univariate and multivariate models were utilized to examine the impact of the BPCI initiative on costs and readmissions. Findings from this study suggest a relationship between Phase 2 BPCI participation and decreased costs. Hospitals participating in the Phase 2 BPCI program had total episode costs that were...