Nashville leads effort to combine health payments

Nashville companies are on the leading edge of one of the significant concepts being touted as a major tenet of health reform. Healthcare delivery has long been organized in micro systems that tend to function effectively in their own specialized universes. Earlier this year, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Kerry Weems referred to these healthcare micro systems as "silos in healthcare," and announced a demonstration project to bring about a single, comprehensive payment to cover a bundle of services. CMS announced five major health systems had been selected to participate in the project to explore the concept. Two of the participants are owned by Ardent Health Services of Nashville.