Access & Networks

CMS is moving ACCESS from concept to market test, accepting roughly 150 participants into the 10-year Advancing Chronic Care with Effective, Scalable Solutions model launching July 5 to align Medicare payments with measurable outcomes for Original Medicare beneficiaries with obesity, diabetes, musculoskeletal pain, and depression. The model signals CMMI under the Trump administration is prioritizing voluntary, tech-enabled chronic care models that pair providers with digital health and infrastructure companies—creating a new pathway for VBC enablement vendors, safety-net innovators, and specialty-focused care teams, but also testing whether “lean” payments and voluntary participation can generate durable provider engagement and savings. For ACOs, payers, and health systems, ACCESS raises a strategic network question: whether to build, buy, or partner for scalable chronic-condition management capabilities as CMS increasingly ties access expansion to evidence-based prevention, measurable outcomes, and technology-supported care delivery (CMS announces 150 participants; lean payment, voluntary participation test).