Is Your Bundled Care Plan Market-Ready?

Three out of four consumers surveyed say they find bundled care plans "appealing." The promise of transparency is tantalizing, but consumers are clear-eyed and armed with a list of essential benefits.

Bundled payment arrangements still aren't the norm, but they soon might be. Two important announcements about bundling took place last week within days of each other. First, Booz & Company issued results of a survey showing 78% of U.S. consumers found the idea of bundled healthcare "appealing."

Then, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced four models of bundled payments in which 500 hospitals will participate during various phases of its Bundled Payments for Care Improvement program.

One of the authors of the Booz survey, Minoo Javanmardian, PhD, says consumers are ready for healthcare organizations to start offering bundled care for many reasons, including the possibility of having care and payment for care be more transparent.

"Consumers right now, score healthcare low in satisfaction, and that is partly because they don't have information to be able to make decisions," says Javanmardian. "So, [it's] the whole notion of telling the consumer that under this construct there will be someone, other than you, who will stitch all the things you need to do together and deliver to you an end-to-end product. That doesn't exist today."