Bundling surgery and surgical fees into one payment for a so-called episode of care is the goal of CMS. It's meant to reduce costs. But what if physicians don't deliver all the expected services? Should they reimburse some of the money? The RAND corporation says yes -- and estimates the savings at nearly $10 billion annually.
healthcare waste
A new study estimates that 25% of our healthcare spending is wasted. Physicians, the most easily squeezed, account for about a third. Market failures -- a term for opaque, high prices for pharmaceuticals and the high cost of administrative "complexity" -- account for the other two-thirds.