Bundled Pricing - Another Example of ACA Bureaucratic Bungling

September 10, 2012 -  As every physician knows by now, the Affordable Care Act holds these truths to be self-evident -  avaricious physicians using excessive, repetitive fee-for-service services  are responsible for high health costs.  Therefore, the only ways to rein in these costs, are: 1)  to end fee-for-service;  2) ban physician self-referral; 3) herd physicians in accountable care organizations  with budget caps; 4) punish physicians and hospitals if they exceed those caps.   So much for top-down blame-game fantasies and bureaucratic explanations  for high costs engendered by open-ended federal entitlement programs. In the real world,  these strategies are known as rationing.

For details, See E. Emanuel, et al: "Containing Health Care Spending, "  New England Journal of Medicine," September 6, 2012