Alliance Statement – CMS INNOVATION CENTER ANNOUNCES ADVANCING CHRONIC CARE WITH EFFECTIVE, SCALABLE SOLUTIONS (ACCESS) MODEL

ALLIANCE STATEMENT

CMS INNOVATION CENTER ANNOUNCES TECH-ENABLED ADVANCING CHRONIC CARE WITH EFFECTIVE, SCALABLE SOLUTIONS (ACCESS) MODEL

DECEMBER 2025

The Alliance for Connected Care applauds the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on its announcement of the Advancing Chronic Care with Effective, Scalable Solutions (ACCESS) Model. This outcome-aligned payment model represents meaningful progress toward a modernized Medicare program that empowers clinicians to use technology-enabled care for chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, musculoskeletal disorders, and mental health.

For too long, antiquated regulatory and payment barriers have limited the ability of clinicians to deploy digital health tools, including remote monitoring and other tech-enabled care, even when those tools meet patients’ needs and improve outcomes. The ACCESS Model begins to remove these barriers by explicitly supporting flexible, tech-enabled care pathways.

This model aligns directly with what the Alliance advocated in our comments to the Health Technology Ecosystem RFI: healthcare delivery should be seamless across modalities and payment and practice requirements should be modernized to unlock the full potential of digital health. Providers should be able to choose the most clinically appropriate modality without being limited by fee-for-service billing constraints.

As the Medicare population continues to age, and clinician shortages worsen, the use of technology to manage patients with multiple chronic conditions or in high-risk post-acute circumstances are not just an imperative, they are a necessity. The Alliance believes that one key to scaling these services will be enabling technology to extend the capabilities of the clinician. Our current coding and reimbursement structures often stand in the way of this innovation.

The ACCESS model represents the kind of bold, forward-looking policy the Alliance has long advocated for. By compensating quality and outcomes rather than volume, ACCESS ensures patients and providers aren’t forced to weigh outdated regulatory or payment barriers when determining the best modality for care.

The Alliance believes the ACCESS Model is an important first step toward transforming how chronic care is delivered in Medicare and has the potential to become a national standard for technology-enabled, patient-centered care. We look forward to working with CMS to continue to expand access to highly efficient and patient-centric tech-enabled care.