There were a number of factors present at both institutions that were critical to the success of their projects that may be helpful for other organizations interested in implementing these clinical and financing reforms.
A commitment to continuous improvement in large centers can flourish in the presence of initially small financial incentives. Both centers made significant steps to improve care quality even in areas where significant financial gains were not expected (for example, the upside for Colorado was less than $40,000 per year).
Impact of “demand destruction” on financial risk-taking. With better care coordination, hospital healthcare spending will be reduced as a result of decreased volume, and this can have a negative impact on those hospitals׳ operating margins. Therefore, bundled payments may not be the best option over long periods, if the organization cannot adapt their business model to accommodate the decrease in revenue.
Clinical leadership is essential to change management and quality improvement. Duke and Colorado have highly committed clinical leaders who envisioned and pursued innovative care. The effect of top-down leadership is essential in supporting a commitment to continuous quality improvement and a culture of learning and innovation.
Convening organizations play a key role in providing technical assistance and implementation support. Clinical leaders and health systems do not always have a complete set of tools for payment reform. Thus, conveners contracted by CMMI, played a helpful role in catalyzing payment reform for their members.
The future of further care redesign is uncertain. While both organizations began with relatively small-scale, incremental pilot programs around CHF, it remains to be seen if this will lead to broader redesign of CHF care. While such changes can be incentivized by shared savings ACOs or bundled payments, time will tell if the centers pursue more comprehensive, high-value changes in care.