TEAM Year One: The Preparation Window Is Closing

Three months into CMS's cms.gov/priorities/inno… and the real stakes haven't arrived yet. 2026 is the ramp year. Financial risk escalates in 2027. The hospitals that treat this year as a grace period will regret it. The FY 2026 IPPS final rule brought consequential updates: HCC version 28 for risk adjustment (more granular than v22), a 180-day lookback window, and relief for low-volume hospitals with fewer than 31 cases in any of the five episode categories—LEJR, surgical hip fracture, spinal fusion, CABG, and major bowel. The 180-day lookback matters more than most realize. Comprehensive documentation of comorbidities in the six months before an anchor hospitalization directly affects target pricing. Surgeons who still view coding as someone else's problem are leaving money on the table—and risk on their institutions. The operational question for every TEAM hospital right now: Do you know your actual episode costs, by procedure, by surgeon, with post-acute variation mapped? If not, you have nine months before the financial model bites.What's your TEAM preparation strategy?

The systems that invest in episode analytics now will have a structural advantage in 2027.