CMS has announced the sites for its Acute Care Episode (ACE) demonstration, under which CMS will test the use of a bundled payment for both hospital and physician services for a select set of inpatient episodes of care. The demonstration seeks to encourage hospitals and physicians to develop efficiencies in the care they provide to beneficiaries through quality improvement in clinical pathways, improved coordination of care among specialists, and provider incentive programs (i.e., “gainsharing”). The sites for the demonstration are: Baptist Health System in San Antonio, Texas; Oklahoma Heart Hospital LLC in Oklahoma City, Okla.; Exempla Saint Joseph Hospital in Denver, Colo.; Hillcrest Medical Center in Tulsa, Okla.; and Lovelace Health System in Albuquerque, N.M. These facilities will receive bundled payments for 28 cardiac and 9 orthopedic inpatient surgical services and procedures, beginning in early 2009.
