With TEAM’s focus on improving surgical recoveries and costs in major hospital-based surgeries, it’s easy to miss the importance of primary care physicians. But their role is essential for meeting TEAM’s objective to improve patient recovery and lower costs in the five major types of surgery covered by TEAM. And perhaps not in the way […]
For TEAM Success, Collaboration Agreements Must Be a Win-Win for Specialists and Hospitals
The new Transforming Episode Accountability Model (TEAM) targets the highest cost or volume surgeries in the Medicare program. While hospitals bear the financial risk, CMS has created a vehicle to align interests with other providers through Collaboration Agreements that can include financial incentives. How those are structured will be key to the successful alignment—or fracture—of […]
New TIPS for TEAM: Adopt ERAS Guidelines for Prevention of Complications and Faster Recovery
If TEAM has your hospital searching for an evidence-based toolkit to improve surgical outcomes and reduce recovery time, participating hospitals and their surgical teams should pay heed to ERAS (Enhanced Recovery After Surgery) protocols. The guidelines are tailored to more than twenty types of surgery as well as anesthesia and intensive care. They have been […]
TIPS for TEAM: How to Reduce the Top Driver of Higher Variable Costs in Surgery Episodes
One of the largest and most significant changes to specialty care payments in Medicare commences in January. TEAM (Transforming Episode Accountability Model) is poised to put hospitals at risk for total costs of care for the highest cost Medicare surgical episodes, including Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG), Lower Extremity Joint Replacements (LEJR), major bowel procedures, […]
Is Your ACO at Risk of Not Meeting APP Quality Reporting Standards?
Do you have confidence in your ACO’s ability to meet APP Quality Reporting requirements? The 2025 Performance Year is the first year ACOs are required to report through the APM Performance Pathway (APP). Your ACO must transition to a proven technology-based solution to be successful. You need to be well along the path to successful […]
The 2026 CMS PFS Final Rule: The 5 Ways CMS Aims to Control Total Cost of Care
The CMS PFS Final Rule is out . . . early? If you’re wondering how, in the midst of the Shutdown, a 2,375-page Rule could be released, the answer is simple: most of the proposals from this summer were finalized as is. There are always exceptions, but the big takeaway is that this Rule solidifies […]
Three Strategies for ACOs to Optimize Specialty Care through TEAM
Both the greatest strength and weakness of the ACO shared savings (MSSP) model is its focus on primary care, particularly chronic disease. ACOs have put patients with diabetes, hypertension, and other conditions usually handled through primary care physicians at the center of care coordination, population health, and care management. But as CMS Value-Based Care’s central […]
Providers: Collaborate or Lose Under TEAM Risk-Based Payment for Specialty Procedures
Surgery will be a financial winner or loser under TEAM (Transforming Episode Accountability Model), a mandatory episodic payment model beginning in January 2026. Let’s be clear: TEAM requires a tectonic plate shift in managing cost and outcomes of surgical procedures for five types of procedures. To be on the winning side of this model, your […]
CMS is Demanding Change in Specialty Care: 5 Things to Know about ASM
Heads up! CMS’s Proposed 2026 PFS Rule introduces a new payment model for tackling specialty care and costs in traditional Medicare. Clearly not a snap decision, Ambulatory Specialty Model (ASM) has been cooked until well-seasoned and served up in 210 pages of the proposed Rule. Unlike a typical Notice from the CMS Innovation Center that […]
CMS Commits to Control Total Cost of Care: 6 Volleys in the 2026 CMS PFS Proposed Rule
Summer is here, and the heat is on: barbeques, beaches, and the 2026 CMS Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule. Throughout 1,803 pages, CMS is going after the total cost of care in the MIPS and APM tracks of the Quality Payment Program (QPP). These proposed updates and the creation of a surprise new (and mandatory!) […]