Co-Management Agreements

The details of co-management agreements and bundled payments overlap, but they can still coexist in a hospital for the time being. Both arrangements seek to improve quality while lowering costs by a higher degree of interaction between hospitals and physicians. Physicians earn bonuses for reaching certain quality measures, though the bonuses are calculated in different ways and reward different measures. Co-management agreements are centered on physician management of an entire service line, while bundled payments are focused on specific episodes of care. In the current market, the two models seem to coexist, though some thought leaders project one model may become more prevalent in the years to
come.