DEADLINES FOR ACO SIGN-ON LETTERS TO CMS AND CONGRESS FAST APPROACHING We need your help in advocating for key policies that impact accountable care. We’re asking you to sign two important letters: (1) urging CMS to address the inaccurate trend factor in MSSP and (2) calling on Congress to extend Medicare’s advanced APM incentives.
ACPT Sign-On Letter to CMS— Ask CMS to reweight the Accountable Care Prospective Trend (ACPT) to zero. LAST CALL! Sign on deadline has been extended to COB Friday, May 2.
APM Sign-On Letter to Congress— Join NAACOS and our partners in the Alliance for Value-Based Patient Care in calling for lawmakers to extend Medicare’s advanced APM incentives and restore the previous qualifying thresholds that expired at the end of 2024. Please note that the deadline to sign the letter to Congress has been extended to COB Wednesday, May 7.
Contact @Aisha Pittman or @Robert Daley for additional information or questions. |
NAACOS FALL ADVOCACY SUMMIT AND HILL DAY REGISTRATION NOW OPEN
Do you want to make your voice heard in Washington and learn about the latest policy developments impacting health care providers? Join fellow NAACOS members for a unique opportunity to engage with lawmakers and their staff to advocate for ACOs and shape the future of value-based care. Registration is open until June 30 or when capacity is reached. Contact @Robert Daley for more information.
Courtyard Marriott Convention Center 901 L Street NW, Washington, DC 20001
Wednesday, September 10 – Thursday, September 11, 2025
Please note this is not in conjunction with the Fall Conference that is scheduled for October 8-10. |
NEW COALITION LAUNCHES TO ADVANCE VALUE FOR COMPLEX POPULATIONS
Last week, the Complex Care Alliance (CCA) was launched to improve models of care for complex, vulnerable Medicare beneficiaries. Formed by ten ACOs in the High Needs Track of ACO REACH and five partner organizations—including NAACOS, Accountable for Health, the American Academy of Home Care Medicine, America’s Physician Groups, and the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care—CCA intends to work with CMS and CMMI to ensure Medicare beneficiaries retain access to high-needs focused accountable care. NAACOS will continue to leverage its High Needs Patients Roundtable to refine our advocacy positions and inform our work with CCA.
| CY 2026 MA FINAL RULE AND RATE ANNOUNCEMENT
CMS issued the Calendar Year (CY) 2026 Medicare Advantage (MA) and Part D Final Rule on Aril 4 and the CY26 Rate Announcement on April 7. NAACOS has resources available on the final rules—Final Rule Summary and Rate Notice Summary. Stay tuned for an upcoming webinar that will provide an overview of the Final Rule and Rate Notice changes. To participate in further MA discussions, join our MA Deep Dive Roundtables.
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Welcome New Partners |
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• • •Congressional Updates |
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HOUSE LAWMAKERS SEND LETTER TO CMMIRepublicans on the House Ways and Means Committee sent a letter
to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz and Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) Director Abe Sutton to share their commitment to value-based care and outline their priorities for CMMI. The letter outlines many challenges that have been identified by stakeholders as barriers to model development. The committee is calling on the Trump Administration to prioritize solutions to increase care delivery in rural communities and increase transparency and communication with stakeholders to increase collaboration on model designs. NAACOS is encouraged that the House Ways and Means Committee letter aligns with many of our recommendations
to improve model development at CMMI. | CONGRESS BEGINS WORK ON BUDGET RECONCILIATION
Congress returned this week from a two-week district work period to kick off a busy session where House committees will start drafting tax and spending proposals aligned with the new House-Senate budget resolution. House Republicans aim to bring their reconciliation package to the floor the week of May 19. Ahead of that, the House Energy and Commerce Committee is expected to meet the week of May 5 to consider its portion, which may include proposed cuts to the Medicaid program. The Senate will likely wait to begin its reconciliation process until after the House acts. Once both chambers pass their versions, leaders will reconcile differences and produce a final bill to send to the President. |
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• • •Administration Updates |
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WHITE HOUSE SKINNY BUDGET ON TAP
The White House is expected to release an outline of President Trump’s budget request to Congress that highlights the President’s policy priorities and ongoing efforts to reshape the federal government. While presidential budgets are non-binding and do not carry the force of law, the request does provide an in-depth glimpse of the Trump Administration’s top spending and policy priorities for the upcoming federal fiscal year. The budget overview is also expected to further highlight the ongoing structural reforms underway within the federal government, including large reductions to HHS programs. A more detailed budget request in May followed by HHS Secretary Kennedy testifying before various committees to discuss the administration’s health priorities and reorganizations.
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MSSP PUBLIC REPORTING DEADLINE
ACOs participating in MSSP have until Wednesday, May 28, 2025, to complete updates to the ACO public reporting webpage with ACO organizational information and financial and quality performance results. This is also the deadline for ACOs participating in the Advance Investment Payments (AIP) option to publicly report AIP use. CMS provides two options for ACOs to update the public reporting: a new automated public reporting subtab available in the ACO-MS and a manual template that ACOs can populate and post. Detailed instructions and the manual public reporting template are available on the Program Guidance & Specifications webpage.
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• • •Education Opportunities |
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JOIN THE NAACOS CONNECT CONVERSATION TODAY!
NAACOS is excited to announce our brand new and improved version of our listservs – NAACOS Connect! NAACOS Connect runs on the Telegram platform, which is a free messaging app you can access on your phone or computer. We’re using it as a flexible way for members to stay in touch. You’ll be able to ask questions of peers and share your experiences, and you will have the ability to search previous discussion topics. To access this members-only benefit, you’ll first need to install Telegram. We have a quick and easy guide available on our website. Follow the instructions to log in or create an account. Note that your account must be tied to a phone number, which remains confidential.
While you may use the Telegram app for a wide variety of groups and activities, NAACOS Connect is private and invitation only, with verified NAACOS members as the only participants. To join the conversation, click the link in the invitation email you received on April 17, or contact support@naacos.com for assistance. Please make sure your IT team whitelists emails from *@mg.naacos.com to prevent these emails from being blocked.
| REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN FOR OUR NEXT BOOT CAMP 101 SERIES!
Join us in these live, virtual events coming in June 2025. Our Boot Camp 101 Events are live virtual sessions within two educational tracks: Clinical Operations and Data and Analytics. Each Boot Camp will be provided in two 4-hour educational sessions and include a 1-hour peer-to-peer virtual reception. The Clinical Operations and the Data and Analytics Boot Camps will be held on separate dates, and they can be purchased separately or in a package with both recorded for future viewing. These sessions will be presented at the beginner-to-intermediate level and will provide an understanding of Medicare accountable care and population health to maintain successful administration and operational functions. You can check out the agendas for the June 17-18 Data and Analytics Boot Camp and the June 24-25 Clinical Operations Boot Camps here.
| MARK YOUR CALENDAR! REGIONAL MEETING DATES FOR 2025
We heard you: We are ramping up our regional meetings for our members! These will be in-person meetings once a year and a virtual meeting midway through the year for several regions through the country. The regional meetings are an opportunity to have value-based care presentations and discussions with regional topics, payors, and thought leaders from the care continuum in value-based care contracts. We are currently scheduling an in-person meeting August 15 in Indianapolis for a Mid-West regional meeting and will have more information and a registration link coming soon. We are also working on details for an in-person meeting in the Southwest region for November 2025. Although we cannot make arrangements this year to meet in-person in the New England or Northwest regions, we are planning to hold a virtual meeting for each of these regions, and midyear virtual meetings for the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions. Tentative dates for these events are listed below. Please note virtual meeting times are tentative and may change slightly as agendas are developed. Updates will be provided in upcoming newsletters.
Northwest/Rocky Mountain Region Virtual Meeting :July 25, 10:00 am to 3:00 pm MT Mid-Atlantic Region Midyear Virtual Meeting: August 1, or August 6, 1:00 pm to 4 pm ET Midwestern Region In-Person Meeting: August 15, 10:00 am to 4:30 pm CT New England Region Virtual Meeting August 22, 10:00 am to 3:00 pm ET Southeastern Regional Midyear Virtual Meeting: September 26, 1:00 pm to 4 pm ET Southwestern Regional In-Person Regional Meeting: November 7 or 14, 10:00 am to 4:30 pm PT
Watch for updates and registration links in future newsletters and on our Regional Meeting Webpage
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What We’re Watching:
News About ACOs and Health Care |
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- Reps. Greg Murphy (R-NC) and Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) sent a bipartisan letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) requesting a review of medical loss ratio (MLR) requirements for Medicare Advantage organizations.
Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-LA) released a report summarizing the findings of a multi-year investigation into the 340B Drug Pricing Program. A new study in JAMA reports that MSSP saved a total of $8.9 – $12.9 billion to Medicare over its first eight years, with savings rates increasing over time. Smaller and physician-led ACOs generated the most savings. An accompanying Dartmouth editorial highlights broader benefits, including improved care for non-ACO patients, and emphasizes continued support for the ACO model. |
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