The TEAM Bundle episodes are connected to the CMS LEAD ACO Model in ways many don’t realize.

The CMS Administered Risk Arrangements(CARA), and specifically the musculoskeletal Episode Based Risk Arrangements (EBRA), overlap entirely with the orthopedic episodes in TEAM (total hip replacement, total knee replacement, and lumbar fusion).

So if you are smart, you are one of the 729 hospitals selected for TEAM, learning to excel in the model, and also looking to see what ACOs in your area might be leaning in to LEAD.

TEAM hospitals sit at a natural place to be the downstream preferred musculoskeletal provider for orthopedic cases to flow to you if you can show you perform. If you put in place the care coordination infrastructure to figure out how to flip your performance from loss to gain on these episodes, this creates a compounding shared savings advantage that could be over a decade long.

What is going to further enhance this? You guessed it: The CMS ACCESS Model.

The ACCESS participant can be a revenue generating AI powered, digital infrastructure, collecting PROMs, engaging with patients to administer digital MSK care, and becoming a patient engagement and data layer flowing between the lead ACO and MSK specialists or TEAM hospitals. The three fit very nicely, and in my opinion this is where musculoskeletal specialists, but in particular physical therapists and occupational therapists have a completely untapped lane to own the episode and partake in shared savings in a way that hasn't been possible before.

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