Association of Hospitals' Experience with Bundled Payment for Care Improvement Model with the Diffusion of Acute Hospital Care at Home

Abstract

Objective: To examine whether hospitals' experience in a prior payment model incentivizing care coordination is associated with their decision to adopt a new payment program for a care delivery innovation.

Data sources: Data were sourced from Medicare fee-for-service claims in 2017, the list of participants in Bundled Payment for Care Improvement initiatives (BPCI and BPCI-Advanced), the list of hospitals approved for Acute Hospital Care at Home (AHCaH) between November 2020 and August 2022, and the American Hospital Association Survey.

Study design: Retrospective cohort study. Hospitals' adoption of AHCaH was measured as a function of hospitals' BPCI experiences. Hospitals' BPCI experiences were categorized into five mutually exclusive groups: (1) direct BPCI participation, (2) indirect participation through physician group practices (PGPs) after dropout, (3) indirect participation through PGPs only, (4) dropout only, and (5) no BPCI exposure.

Data collection/extraction methods: All data are derived from pre-existing sources. General acute hospitals eligible for both BPCI initiatives and AHCaH are included.

Principal findings: Of 3248 hospitals included in the sample, 7% adopted AHCaH as of August 2022. Hospitals with direct BPCI experience had the highest adoption rate (17.7%), followed by those with indirect participation through BPCI physicians after dropout (11.8%), while those with no exposure to BPCI were least likely to participate (3.2%). Hospitals that adopted AHCaH were more likely to be located in communities where more peer hospitals participated in the program (median 10.8% vs. 0%). After controlling for covariates, the association of the adoption of AHCaH with indirect participation through physicians after dropout was as strong as with early BPCI adopter hospitals (average marginal effect: 5.9 vs. 6.2 pp, p < 0.05), but the other categories were not.

Conclusions: Hospitals that participated in the bundled payment model either directly or indirectly PGPs were more likely to adopt a care delivery innovation requiring similar competence in the next period.

Keywords: Medicare; bundled payment models; care delivery innovations; diffusion of innovations; hospital‐at‐home; organizational change; value‐based payment reform.