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In the past year, the Innovation Center has built the foundation of its evidence-based prevention pillar. The Center intends to maintain momentum with new prevention-focused payment models to advance transformative practice change.
ore than 150 million Americans live with at least one chronic disease, driving the vast majority of health care spending in the US and negatively impacting individual well-being, quality of life, and attainment of personal health goals. Preventive care is one of the cornerstones of the current administration’s health care agenda.
In 2025, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center (Innovation Center) launched a new core strategic pillar to promote evidence-based prevention. Leveraging its distinct statutory authority, the Innovation Center set out to design new prevention-oriented payment and care delivery models and embed preventive care into other total-cost-of-care models, shifting care upstream to address root causes of poor health and support people with Medicare and Medicaid.
Implementing the prevention strategy has required assessment of the strength of evidence of preventive interventions and the potential use of various policy levers. The strategy encompasses primary prevention (stopping chronic disease before it begins), secondary prevention (identifying chronic diseases early through screening and detection), and tertiary prevention (managing chronic disease to minimize its impact and slow disease progression).
The strategy emphasizes nutrition and physical activity, which have historically been underused in health care settings despite their significant influence on health outcomes. The strategy also incorporates technology solutions, partnerships, and beneficiary engagement, recognizing that prevention occurs not just in clinics but also in homes, communities, and in daily routines.