Vox: One Of Obamacare’s Big Experiments To Lower Costs Is Working Surprisingly Well

“The program was called “bundled payments,” and it was voluntary under the Obama administration — hospitals could opt in or out. Almost immediately, it seemed to be working. Costs per procedure were going down, and quality seemed to stabilize or even improve. Hospitals didn’t have to worry about squeezing every dollar they could out of Medicare and could start focusing more on the care itself.

But some health economists had two outstanding fears: Would hospitals start performing more surgeries, which would erase any savings to Medicare? And would they start becoming more selective about their patients to avoid particularly costly ones?”