Whitehall of Deerfield Forges Partnership for Improved Health Care

Whitehall of Deerfield announced it has been selected by the Illinois Bone & Joint Institute (IBJI) as a partner in the new Bundled Payments for Care Improvement initiative created by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

As part of the Affordable Care Act, this CMS initiative will test four different bundled healthcare payments models. CMS has chosen IBJI as one of only 14 healthcare providers nationwide to participate in the third model, which will test bundling post-acute (also called post-hospital) payments.

IBJI in turn has selected Whitehall of Deerfield as its post-acute care partner.

“The goal of this initiative is to test how bundling payments and coordinating care among physicians and healthcare centers such as Whitehall of Deerfield can improve health outcomes, and reduce avoidable hospital re-admissions,” said Jeremy Kanter, administrator at Whitehall of Deerfield.

“Whitehall of Deerfield is proud to join forces with IBJI to create even better patient outcomes."

Along with CMS, Whitehall of Deerfield and IBJI will be collaborating on this initiative specifically for patients who are receiving rehabilitation for major joint replacement of the lower extremity. The rehabilitation will take place at Whitehall of Deerfield after an acute care hospital stay.

Of the four different bundled health care payments models CMS will be testing, IBJI and Whitehall of Deerfield will be participating in Model 3, which involves post-acute care. Model 1 involves hospital acute care only, Model 2 involves both hospital acute care and post-acute care, and the fourth model bundles both acute care and physician payments during a hospital stay.

Submitted by Whitehall of Deerfield