Bundled payments could cut Medicare fraud, experts say

Health and policy experts are pushing for a system that pays doctors a lump sum for medical care or allows them to share in savings, saying it will save millions of dollars over current fee-for-service payments that can lead to fraud and over-use of medications. In the new system, doctors would not be entitled to extra pay should they prescribe costlier medication. Earlier this month, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., raised the issue of lump sum – or "bundled" – payment plans at a hearing for the nomination of Sylvia Mathews Burwell to become secretary of Health and Human Services. A bundled payment demonstration project at Bay State Health in Massachusetts saved $2,000 per Medicare patient for things like hip transplants, she said.