Hospitals weigh worth of bundled care

Detroit Medical Center and St. Joseph Mercy Health System in Ann Arbor are at ground zero when it comes to answering the question: If you pay hospitals and physicians a flat rate for a health care procedure, will that lower costs and improve quality because care is coordinated more effectively?

Medicare's bundled payments for care improvement initiative (BPCI) — one of a dozen cost-containment programs mandated by the Affordable Care Act — seeks to answer that question.