Value-Based Contracting & Payment

Over the past week, value-based care stakeholders are closely watching CMS’s new ACCESS and LEAD models as pivotal infrastructure opportunities for advancing ACO and population health strategies in Medicare. Recent coverage underscores both the practical promise of these models—such as digital health integration and flexibility in care management—and the operational uncertainties, including critical data gaps and risk-bearing complexities facing 2027 LEAD participants (Wakely analysis). Simultaneously, CMS is proposing a nationwide expansion of the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) model, signaling continued federal momentum under the Trump administration toward scaling episodic and value-based payment arrangements across broader clinical conditions (CJR expansion coverage). This convergence of new pilot models with legacy expansions