CMS Launches ACCESS

CMS is betting that interoperable digital care teams outperform CPT menus and they’re paying (for outcomes) accordingly.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services were like, “What if this weekend, instead of turkey, we cooked up the biggest tailwind for tech-enabled care providers and interoperability companies since...the pandemic?”

Tech-enabled care providers’ prayers to the Abe Sutton shrine in their closets have finally paid off. Today, the CMS announced Advancing Chronic Care with Effective, Scalable Solutions (ACCESS), a new 10-year voluntary model for traditional Medicare. The naming is clear: CMS is trying to give Original Medicare beneficiaries access to technology-supported care pathways that have historically been limited or walled off.

ACCESS does three big things.