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September 23, 2026
What’s new: The CMS Innovation Center released the Final Evaluation Report for the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Advanced (BPCI Advanced) Model, which generated more than $800 million in net Medicare savings across eight model years.
Why it matters: Fragmented post-acute care fuels unnecessary Medicare spending and inconsistent patient outcomes, and the findings from BPCI Advanced show that episode-based financial accountability can drive down spending while ensuring patients have a positive care experience.
What to expect: While BPCI Advanced did not meet the Innovation Center’s criteria for expansion, CMS is carrying forward key lessons from BPCI Advanced into the Transforming Episode Accountability Model (TEAM), which launched January 1, 2026 — TEAM is another episode-based payment model that is designed to reduce avoidable emergency department use and hospital readmissions.
The big picture: BPCI Advanced produced strong evidence to back the Innovation Center’s effort to move people with Medicare into accountable care arrangements with providers who assume total responsibility for the cost and quality of care to better help people achieve their health goals and protect taxpayers.
Additional details: The model also increased participants’ awareness of the costs and quality of post-acute care, informing discharge destination decisions and increasing focus on patient recoveries. Over the course of the model, participants — including hospitals and physician group practices — achieved $700 to $1,100 in expenditure reductions per episode.
Find out more:
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Visit the CMS Innovation Center website
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