Access & Networks

CMMI’s new tech-enabled ACCESS Model is drawing attention as a potential outcomes-based care pathway for digital health and specialty-care enablement companies, with Story Health/Innovaccer participation signaling how vendors may try to enter Medicare value-based arrangements—but the model’s promise is tempered by concerns about operational complexity, market readiness, and whether tech-enabled access translates into measurable accountability. At the same time, CMS’ 2027 Medicare Advantage rulemaking is sharpening the access-and-network tension in MA: consumer protections are being adjusted unevenly, while withdrawal of a special enrollment policy for network disruptions leaves beneficiaries and providers exposed to contract breakups and narrower networks—an issue hospitals are pushing Congress to address through the Medicare Advantage Improvement Act. For ACOs, health systems, and payer strategists, the week’s pattern is clear: federal VBC policy is expanding tech-enabled access models while MA network instability remains a major barrier to continuity, attribution, and population health execution ([Health Affairs on ACCESS](https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMizwFBVV95cUxQcE1yQzAyZWYzZDYxVW9WaDU0MVlyQmFNdTVRRkhFSW1hRWcydHVXcUV6bTBweHFiVzdYblhUbHdsOFUxc0NuNHZkVDFVN1ZtVFlBalVWMWphTkU3STRHWFRGTTM5LW