Bundled Payments and Hidden Costs

In a fee-for-service environment, anesthesiologists are paid for the volume of services billed, with little relation to the cost of delivering the services. In bundled payments, anesthesiologists are paid a set fee for an episode of care inclusive of all the anesthesia, pain medicine, and related services for the surgical episode and a period of time after the initial procedure to cover complications and redo procedures. When calculating a bundled payment, all the services typically used by a patient must be counted when calculating both the costs and expected payment.