The ACCESS Model is designed to expand tech-enabled care for Medicare beneficiaries with certain chronic conditions, aligning payments with outcomes for better patient health. What’s the impact? A Medicare model targeting conditions like hypertension, diabetes, chronic pain, and depression with scalable, tech-supported solutions. Providers, tech firms, and health systems gain new reimbursement pathways; applications open…

The Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) is the largest federal initiative that promotes accountable care and value-based payment models. A central design feature of the program is its tiered approach to financial risk. ACOs generally begin in one-sided models and share in a portion of the savings generated but are insulated from losses if costs…

All of us can see glaring issues with the healthcare system that need to be addressed — but system-level change is hard. The leap to VBC isn’t easy, but the results are undeniable. I practiced nephrology in eastern North Carolina for nearly 25 years. Like many of my colleagues, I went into medicine to give…

Sound Long-Term Care Management (SLTCM), an accountable care organization (ACO) participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program, reported $113.985 million in total savings for performance year 2024, according to newly released results. The ACO, which focuses on long-term care and assisted-living populations, is among the facility-based groups showing substantial year-over-year savings as CMS continues to push for broader participation…

When the conversation shifts toward value-based care (VBC), hospital systems find themselves in a delicate balancing act. On one hand, VBC strategies compel providers to prioritize preventive, coordinated, and holistic care to improve outcomes and reduce avoidable acute care utilization. On the other, hospital systems are largely embedded in a fee-for-service (FFS) environment, where inpatient…

In late August 2025, CMS released Performance Year (PY) 2024 data for the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). MSSP incentivizes participants to provide coordinated, high-quality care while lowering costs by sharing a portion of savings achieved for Medicare with participants. This marked the twelfth year of the program and the eighth consecutive year MSSP has achieved savings…