Bundle up.

Temperatures outside may be dropping, but our national health policy debate shows no signs of cooling down. Since bundled (aka episode-based) payments are likely making an even bigger appearance in 2018, authors from U Penn and Harvard encourage us to think outside the box in having them work to our advantage. Their three basic ideas: extend the bundling from 90 days to something more like a year, distribute risks among entities beyond the hospital, and align incentives of Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) and bundled payments such that ACOs can reap savings based on the actual costs they accrue (somewhat in their control) rather than penalizing them for standard bundled payouts (completely out of their control). Oh, and seriously bundle up because there's a legit cold front coming through.