Impact of CJR Bundled-Payments Assessed

The New England Journal of Medicine published a two-year evaluation of cases from hospitals covered by the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) bundled payment program. The study compared 280,161 hip and knee replacement procedures in 803 hospitals in treatment areas and 377,278 procedures in 962 hospitals in control areas. According to this analysis, in the first two years of the CJR program, there was a modest reduction in spending per hip or knee replacement episode without an increase in rates of complications. The CJR program also did not have a significant differential effect on the percentage of joint-replacement procedures performed in high-risk patients.