CMS’s ACCESS Model in Context: Outcome-Based Payment for Health Technologies

Skip to content

p>a]:underline [&>p]:text-base lg:[&>p]:text-lg"><br>New: CMS’s ACCESS Model Signals Broader Sector Shift to Outcome-Based Payment

The CMS Innovation Center’s 10-year ACCESS model marks an important milestone: the entry of Traditional Medicare as a major purchaser of outcome-aligned technology-supported care for chronic disease management, demonstrating broad recognition that payment should be based on results rather than services delivered. In this report, the Peterson Center on Healthcare synthesizes findings from the work of the Peterson Health Technology Institute (PHTI) to examine how rigorous evaluations of health technologies laid the groundwork for broader outcome-based payment models, such as ACCESS.

Key takeaways:

Meaningful outcome measures and evidence generation are foundational to developing accountable payment models for health technologies.

Momentum for outcome-based payment is accelerating across both the private and public sectors—with CMS’s ACCESS model representing the clearest signal yet that health technologies are increasingly expected to demonstrate measurable improvements in clinical outcomes and lower costs.

The market is converging around standardized outcome measures, reflected in the strong alignment between the clinical focus areas and outcome measures used in the ACCESS model and PHTI assessments.

As outcome-based payment models for health technologies scale, they will continue to reshape the market.

The emergence of the ACCESS model signals even more definitively that the market is moving toward accountable, outcomes-focused payment for health technologies. ACCESS’s initial clinical tracks—behavioral health; musculoskeletal care; and cardio-kidney-metabolic conditions including diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and hypertension—and associated outcome measures closely align with PHTI assessments. This underscores growing market convergence around standardized measures.

As outcome-based payment models are increasingly adopted, the market for health technologies will continue to evolve, including by producing more technologies that drive better clinical outcomes. PHTI’s assessments have helped to lay the foundation for broader outcome-based payment models for health technologies; CMS’s ACCESS signals the readiness of the nation’s largest purchaser—Medicare—to do so at national scale.

Read the Report

See more