CMMI’s Proposed TEAM Model Offers Another Risk-Based Opportunity For Home Health Providers

Home Health Care News By Andrew Donlan
 
Last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center announced a new proposed model that will undoubtedly affect home health providers, and also allow them the opportunity to get more involved in value-based care initiatives. 
 
The Transforming Episode Accountability Model (TEAM), which would eventually be mandatory if finalized, would have selected acute care hospitals put under full responsibility for the cost – and quality – of care from surgery up until the first 30 days after hospital discharge. 
 
CMS said that the model would build on the already existing Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Advanced (BPCI-A) and Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement models. The proposed model would launch on Jan. 1, 2026, and run for five years, ending at the end of 2030. 
 
“TEAM would be a mandatory episode-based alternative payment model in which selected acute care hospitals would coordinate care for people with Traditional Medicare who undergo one of the surgical procedures included in the model (initiate an episode) and assume responsibility for the cost and quality of care from surgery through the first 30 days after the Medicare beneficiary leaves the hospital,” CMS wrote. “As part of taking responsibility for cost and quality during the episode, hospitals would connect patients to primary care services to help establish accountable care relationships and support optimal, long-term health outcomes.”
 
Given those all-important 30 days post discharge involved in the TEAM model, home health providers will naturally play a role in helping hospitals achieve high-quality outcomes. 

The National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) is still awaiting further details, but sees home health agencies as squarely involved in the Innovation Center’s proposal. 

“Much of the specifics are still to be decided,” NAHC President William A. Dombi told Home Health Care News. “Home health agencies can be expected to be significantly involved with the participating hospitals given the nature of the surgical patients that will be targeted, such as hip fractures and joint replacement patients.”…

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