Behavioral Screening and Intervention for Improving Lower-Extremity Arthroplasty Outcomes and Controlling Costs

To the Editor Jackson and colleagues¹ described an opportunity for orthopedic surgeons to improve outcomes and reduce costs under Medicare’s new bundled payment plan for lower-extremity joint replacements. They identified transplant surgeons as role models because transplant surgeons “have learned to engage both traditional and nontraditional partners…in care redesign.”¹ They mentioned skilled nursing facilities and home health agencies as such partners. They could have also mentioned behavioral health professionals, who have helped transplant surgeons identify and manage behavioral health conditions that frequently worsen outcomes.²