Access to Care

CMS is moving the ACCESS model from concept to implementation, naming 150 participants for a July 5 launch and testing whether technology-enabled chronic care vendors and providers can deliver measurable outcomes for Original Medicare beneficiaries with obesity, diabetes, musculoskeletal pain, and depression under comparatively lean payment rates and voluntary participation terms. The strategic tension for VBC stakeholders is whether ACCESS becomes a scalable infrastructure play for digital health, safety-net providers, and ACO-adjacent population health capabilities—or whether below-expected rates limit uptake and performance durability despite strong applicant demand (CMS accepted applicants; Healthcare Finance analysis).

At the same time, favorable first-year results from the ACO REACH program reinforce CMS’s continued use of accountable care models to tie access, equity, quality, and savings together, suggesting that CMS’s CMMI portfolio is positioning chronic disease management, digital enablement, and ACO infrastructure as complementary levers rather than separate experiments.