The 10-year ACCESS program finally aligns Medicare payment with outcomes-focused care. Learn what it means for your organization and how to prepare.
Last updated: December 6, 2025 | We'll continue updating this guide as CMS releases more details about ACCESS requirements and reporting.
If you deliver tech-enabled chronic care, you probably heard the news: CMS just announced a massive Medicare opportunity for digital health.
The ACCESS Model (Advancing Chronic Care with Effective, Scalable Solutions) is a 10-year program that finally creates a real Medicare payment pathway for the kind of care many providers deliver every day: longitudinal, technology-supported, outcomes-focused care for people living with chronic conditions.
We're here to help you understand what it means and how to take advantage of it.
The Big Picture: Why ACCESS Matters
Here's the problem ACCESS is solving: Medicare has never had a great way to pay for tech-enabled care.
Traditional Medicare pays for activities—a visit here, a procedure there. But that's not how modern chronic care works. When you're helping someone manage diabetes, hypertension, anxiety, or chronic pain, you're building a relationship over months and years. You're using apps, remote monitoring, coaching, and virtual check-ins. You're focused on outcomes—did their blood pressure improve? Are they feeling less anxious?
ACCESS flips the script. Instead of billing for each individual touchpoint, participating organizations receive recurring payments tied to actually improving patient health. CMS is calling these "Outcome-Aligned Payments"—and they're exactly what they sound like: get paid for getting results.
The conditions covered affect more than two-thirds of all traditional Medicare beneficiaries. That's a massive population that can now access the kind of technology-supported care that's been transforming commercial and Medicare Advantage markets.
What Conditions Are Covered?
ACCESS focuses on four clinical tracks:
🫀 Early Cardio-Kidney-Metabolic (eCKM): For earlier-stage conditions like hypertension, dyslipidemia, obesity or overweight with a marker of central obesity, and prediabetes. This track emphasizes prevention and halting progression before conditions worsen.
🫀 Cardio-Kidney-Metabolic (CKM): For more established conditions such as diabetes, chronic kidney disease (Stage 3a or 3b), and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (including heart disease). Outcomes are measured through metrics like blood pressure, HbA1c, cholesterol, weight, and kidney function.
🦴 Musculoskeletal (MSK): Chronic musculoskeletal pain. Outcomes are assessed via validated patient-reported measures of pain and function.
🧠 Behavioral Health (BH): Depression and anxiety. Outcomes are tracked using standard tools like PHQ-9 and GAD-7.
The two CKM tracks are a smart design choice by CMS—it means organizations can work with patients at different stages of their health journey, from early intervention (eCKM) through more complex chronic disease management (CKM).
If your organization delivers care for any of these conditions—whether that's diabetes management, virtual MSK programs, behavioral health support, or integrated chronic care—ACCESS creates a pathway to sustainably serve Medicare patients.
Key Dates to Know
Request for Applications (RFA) release: Coming soon (sign up for notifications via the CMS interest form)
Applications deadline for first cohort: April 1, 2026
First cohort launches: July 1, 2026
Later applications: Considered for January 1, 2027 start
The program runs through: June 30, 2036
With the RFA expected imminently, if you're interested in participating, now is the time to start preparing.
What Does CMS Require? (The Short Version)
The full Request for Applications is forthcoming, but here's what we know so far about what participating organizations will need:
- A Physician Clinical Director: Every ACCESS participant needs a Medicare-enrolled MD or DO overseeing clinical quality and compliance.
- Outcomes Tracking and Reporting: You'll need to capture baseline health data for each patient, track their progress, and report outcomes to CMS through their APIs.
- Interoperability with Primary Care: ACCESS is designed so tech-enabled care complements the patient's primary care relationship, not replaces it. You'll need to share care plans and updates with referring providers through secure, electronic means.
- Flexible Care Delivery: Good news: CMS isn't mandating how you deliver care. Virtual, in-person, asynchronous, app-based—use whatever approach works best for your patients and your model.
- Medicare Part B Enrollment: Organizations must be enrolled in Medicare Part B (or enroll if not already).
- Compliance Standards: Adhere to state licensure, HIPAA, FDA requirements (or enforcement discretion), and monitor clinical performance.
How Moco Supports ACCESS Participation
ACCESS isn't asking for anything new from mental health providers using AI tools like Moco. The model rewards exactly what our platform was built to support—longitudinal, outcomes-focused, technology-enabled care delivered by clinicians in behavioral health and beyond.
Moco powers mental health professionals with AI-assisted documentation and insights, helping thousands of clinicians streamline workflows while maintaining ethical, high-quality care. We're HIPAA-compliant, SOC 2 Type II, and designed specifically for therapy frameworks. When CMS describes what ACCESS participants need, they're describing capabilities that Moco users already leverage.
📊 Track Outcomes From Day One
ACCESS pays for results, which means you need to measure them. Moco's Longitudinal Memory tracks patient details across sessions, including progress on clinical targets like PHQ-9 and GAD-7 scores for the BH track. Our tools capture validated patient-reported outcome measures and tie them directly to session notes—no spreadsheets or manual entry required. From baseline to ongoing assessments, everything is in one place.
🤝 Collaborate Across Care Teams and Share Data With PCPs
ACCESS emphasizes coordination—tech-enabled care that works with primary care. Moco makes it easy to share information with existing EHRs like SimplePractice, TherapyNotes, or TheraNest. Share treatment plans and updates electronically with referring providers, while our supervision dashboard keeps teams aligned with shared insights and task follow-ups.
💬 Deliver Care However It Works Best
Virtual visits. Async messaging. Family sessions. ACCESS doesn't prescribe how care happens—and neither does Moco. Our multi-speaker support and real-time session insights give you the flexibility to design care models that fit your patients, whether it's weekly therapy or ongoing support for depression and anxiety.
📋 Stay Compliant Without the Overhead
Medicare programs mean documentation requirements. Moco's AI generates clinical notes, treatment plans, and flags risks (like self-harm mentions) or missing medical necessity criteria, ensuring your records are audit-ready. We're HIPAA, HITECH, SOC 2 Type II, and PHIPA/PIPEDA compliant—the foundation for Medicare participation without added burden.
🚀 Scale Without Rebuilding
ACCESS is a 10-year program. Organizations that participate will need technology that grows with them. Moco supports solo practitioners to group practices with team analytics and custom plans, all without data migration. Our AI is built to scale, helping you focus on care as your Medicare patient base expands.
Bottom line: If you're considering ACCESS, especially for the BH track, you don't need to overhaul your tech stack. Moco users are already equipped for outcomes-focused, longitudinal care. ACCESS is Medicare catching up to modern mental health delivery.
Who Should Consider ACCESS?
ACCESS is a strong fit for organizations that:
✅ Already deliver tech-enabled chronic care (e.g., virtual behavioral health, chronic disease management)
✅ Have an outcomes-focused model (not just billing for activities)
✅ Want to expand into Medicare fee-for-service (beyond Medicare Advantage)
✅ Can designate a physician Clinical Director
✅ Have (or can build) infrastructure for outcomes tracking and data sharing
If that sounds like you, ACCESS could be a game-changer. And if you're using Moco, you're already positioned for this opportunity.
What's Next?
We'll keep updating this guide as CMS releases the Request for Applications, technical specifications, and payment details. There's still a lot we don't know—like exact payment amounts per track and specific reporting requirements—but we'll break it down as soon as the information is available.
In the meantime, here's what you can do:
- Review your current capabilities: Can you track outcomes? Share data with other providers? Capture patient-reported measures?
- Consider Medicare Part B enrollment: If you're not already enrolled, you'll need to be (or partner with an organization that is). This process takes time.
- Explore Moco: See how our AI scribe can streamline your preparation for ACCESS.
Learn More
Have questions about how Moco can support your ACCESS preparation? Reach out to our team—we'd love to help you navigate this exciting opportunity.
About Moco: Moco is the AI co-pilot for mental health professionals, helping clinicians save time on documentation while enhancing care quality. Tailored to therapy frameworks, our platform supports therapists and psychiatrists in delivering effective, ethical care with features like longitudinal memory, risk flagging, and seamless EHR integration. From solo practices to teams, Moco empowers providers to focus on what matters most: their patients.
