Risk-Adjusted Cost Performance for 90-Day Total Knee Arthroplasty Episodes: Data and Methods for Comparing U.S. Hospitals Nationwide.

Medicare Part A payments for TKA episodes were decreasing prior to the CJR model because of decreases in both post-acute care utilization and hospital readmissions. A significant variation in risk-adjusted hospital cost performance remained. Our results provide a baseline against which to measure the impact of alternative payment models and a methodology by which to measure hospital-level performance, which can be compared with peer hospitals and national benchmarks.