This episode of the Anesthesia Economics Podcast was recorded live at the Anesthesia Economics Summit in Charleston.

In this episode, Bellinger Moody explains the TEAM model. The Transforming Episode Accountability Model (TEAM) is a new mandatory CMS alternative payment model that holds hospitals financially accountable for surgical episodes from the operation through 30 days post-discharge, shifting care from fee-for-service to value-based care and tying bonuses or penalties to cost and quality performance over a five-year period starting in 2026.

The episode-based bundled payments, composite quality scores, and escalating upside/downside risk make perioperative medicine clinics critical for pre-op optimization, standardizing pathways, reducing cancellations, preventing post-acute cost overruns, and serving as a data backbone so hospitals can control episodes instead of absorbing CMS paybacks.

Explore the full episode here: https://www.medaxion.com/bellinger-moody-cms-team-alternative-payment-transforming-episode-accountability-model

Jeff McLaren introduces the speakers and panelists whose discussions were recorded live at the 2026 Anesthesia Economics Summit.

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