Medicare’s New TEAM Program Launches—Here’s How It Could Affect Your Hospital Bills in 2026
This new model could help cover post-procedure costs—but experts warn of potential care concerns.
On January 1,the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) launched their new Transforming Episode Accountability Model (TEAM). And while some experts view it as a good thing, others are concerned about how this new system will impact patient care. To learn more about this new model, including how it will affect you, keep reading.
What is the Medicare TEAM program?
CMS announced the Medicare TEAM model in July of 2025. Its main goal? To have acute care hospitals in selected Core-Based Statistical Areas cover the cost of patient care for 30 days after they are discharged for patients on original Medicare. Currently, the only procedures included in the model are lower-extremity joint replacement, surgical hip femur fracture treatment, spinal fusion, coronary artery bypass graft and major bowel procedures. Once patients are ready to go home, TEAM begins.
“TEAM will hold acute-care hospitals accountable for the quality and cost of all services provided during select surgical episodes, from the date of inpatient admission or outpatient procedure through 30 days post-discharge,” explains the American Hospital Association (AHA). “Similar to other bundled payment models, TEAM participants will reconcile performance year spending against a target price to determine if a hospital is eligible for a reconciliation payment or repayment.”
The new model is expected to run until December 31, 2030. During that time, CMS expects care transitions and medical professional investments to grow, which in turn will help patients more easily recover from the procedures above in a safer environment. It will also help ease the financial burden of recovering from procedures for patients, says the CMS.
How the Medicare TEAM program will affect Americans
For people on Original Medicare, the TEAM program could help cover post-procedure costs. But experts are warning that because hospitals will be footing the bill, they might have to cut costs elsewhere to make up for it. This could result in less-than-stellar inpatient care for everyone—not just the millions of Americans on Medicare.
“Hospitals and health systems are eager for opportunities to participate in value-based payment arrangements and to drive innovation in the Medicare program. As such, the AHA and its members support innovative payment models that improve quality and lower cost,” the AHA noted. “However, we continue to be concerned that TEAM does not meet these desired goals and may, in fact, hamper access to care by overburdening providers who do not have the infrastructure or population to be successful in this model, the way it is currently designed.”
There are also concerns over what hospitals will and will not cover under the TEAM program, because if they don’t cover enough, outpatient care could still potentially be the exact same as before.
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