Bundled payments began around 1984 when The Texas Heart Institute began to charge flat fees for both hospital and surgeon services for cardiovascular surgeries. Bundled payment, also known as episode-based payment, case rate, global bundled payment, global payment, package pricing, or packaged pricing, is defined as the compensation of health care providers on the basis of estimated costs for episodes of care. A bundled payment covers services delivered by two or more clinicians during a single episode of care or over a period of time. For example, if an individual has surgery, rather than making one payment to the facility, a second payment to the physician and a third payment to the nurse anesthetist, the patient would combine these expenses
