Dear John,

Join us Wednesday, May 22, for our next virtual Journal Club featuring a closer look into a paper from our May issue with a focus on COVID-19 policies.

Author Christopher Hoover will discuss efforts to improve COVID-19 vaccination rates and reduce cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in prioritized communities with Leslie Erdelack.

Physician Bonuses Under Bundled Payment Model

In the May issue of Health Affairs, Sukruth Shashikumar and his team of coauthors examine the financial experiences of physician groups participating in Medicare’s Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Advanced Model (BPCI-A).

BPCI-A aims to reward participants for reductions in spending and improved care quality. 

Using physician group data from performance periods between 2018-20, the researchers find that these practices “accrued large financial bonuses under the model, amounting to $421 million in incentive payments.

The researchers also conclude that higher target prices were associated with higher bonus payments.

More on Medicare

• Frequency Of Indirect Billing To Medicare For Nurse Practitioner And Physician Assistant Office Visits by Sadiq Y. Patel et al.
• Coverage Denials: Government And Private Insurer Policies For Medical Necessity In Medicare by Aaron L. Schwartz et al.
• A Health Podyssey: Lowering Medicare Eligibility May Improve Cancer Outcomes

The Growing Policy Wave Of Medical Debt Cancellation: States Taking Action

Heather Howard and Laura Buddenbaum

It is Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Month, and we are proud to elevate AANHPIs who work to advance health equity and policy.

In a January 2024 article, Uriel Kim and coauthors investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer detection.