October 30, 2025

Beginning January 1, 2026, NAACOS will update membership dues for ACO and value-based care provider groups. The increase will support investments in resources and educational opportunities to continue to deliver exceptional experiences and value to members. As a part of this update, 2026 membership benefits will also include complimentary and deeply discounted registration for in-person and virtual regional meetings. These events convene value-based care experts across seven geographic regions throughout the year, offering timely insights and networking opportunities.

Any ACO or VBC provider group with a membership renewal date on or before March 31, 2026, can pay their dues in advance by December 31, 2025, to lock in the current 2025 dues rate. For questions or to take advantage of this offer, please contact [email protected]. We thank you for your continued support and collaboration as we strive to drive progress in accountable care

NAACOS invites its ACO and VBC members to nominate staff to serve on one of our standing committees – Policy, Education, or Clinical Quality – through our Call for Committee Nominations. Committee membership offers a meaningful opportunity to help shape the direction of NAACOS, contribute your expertise, and advance care transformation, health outcomes, and cost efficiency in accountable care. Committee members are expected to attend all scheduled meetings, participate in discussions, and serve as subject matter experts for conferences, webinars, and other NAACOS educational events. We encourage self-nominations. Please visit our website and complete the form before December 2.

Each year, NAACOS distributes a survey to our ACO and value-based care members to ensure we are bringing value to your organization and to identify areas where you could use more support. Your feedback is important to help us understand the usefulness of our resources and how we can improve them. This survey should take no more than five minutes of your time. We thank you in advance for your participation!

Reps. Buddy Carter (R-GA), Marc Veasey (D-TX), Greg Steube (R-FL), and Rich McCormick (R-GA) introduced the Skin Substitute Access and Payment Reform Act, which creates a new payment limit for skin substitutes that is based on the volume-weighted average sales price payment limit for skin substitute products. The bill differs slightly from a Senate version as it includes new program integrity provisions that would require outlier providers to be subject to pre-payment review and prior authorization.

While the new program integrity provisions are an improvement over the Senate version of the bill, NAACOS remains concerned that the bill sets pay rates substantially higher than the payment limits proposed by CMS in the 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. NAACOS continues to call for CMS to finalize the proposed payment changes in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.

The path to reopening the federal government remains uncertain as the shutdown stretches into its fourth week. Democrats continue to oppose any spending measure that fails to extend the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) advanced premium tax credits, which are set to expire on December 31. Meanwhile, Republican leaders maintain that the government must first be reopened before Congress takes up the issue of extending the subsidies. Behind the scenes, GOP leadership on Capitol Hill is informally discussing the possibility of linking an extension of the tax credits to Republican health policy priorities and advancing the package through a future funding bill.

The NAACOS Government Affairs team is actively monitoring the impact of the shutdown. If you experience disruptions in your work with CMS or need assistance navigating these changes, please reach out to us at [email protected].

CMS recently released final Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) scores for Performance Year (PY) 2024 and corresponding payment adjustments that will be applied in Payment Year 2026. A perfect MIPS score of 100/100 for PY 2024 corresponds to a 1.05 percent payment adjustment for 2026, which is lower than the maximum positive adjustments seen in recent years. This may be the result of many providers being covered by the extreme and uncontrollable circumstances (EUC) policies due to the Change Healthcare breach, protecting these providers from negative adjustments and lowering the pool that funds positive adjustments. More information is available in the 2024 MIPS Performance Feedback FAQs. Participants have until November 14, 2025, at 8:00 pm ET to request a targeted review in the event of any suspected errors. Details on the targeted review process can be found in the 2024 Targeted Review User Guide.

Registration is now officially open for the Spring 2026 Conference at the Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor on April 22-24. The agenda will highlight insights from CMS officials, leading health care experts, and policy insiders, offering participants an in-depth look at the latest strategies driving health care transformation. In addition to dynamic presentations and panel discussions, the event provides valuable networking opportunities for participants, speakers, and vendors to connect, collaborate, and share best practices. Don’t miss this opportunity to be part of the national conversation shaping the future of value-based care. Registration is open for both in person and virtual participation. Register early and save!

In today’s health care environment, coding accuracy and clinical integrity are more critical than ever for ensuring compliance, supporting providers, and strengthening financial stewardship. CHRISTUS Health, a leading health system serving diverse patient populations, set out to overcome challenges with hierarchical condition code (HCC) risk adjustment, clinical documentation integration (CDI) and provider adoption—all while maintaining a commitment to quality and compliance.

On November 13, join leaders from CHRISTUS Health and sponsor Premier to hear how the organization implemented technology that reduces alert fatigue, fits seamlessly into CDI workflows and achieves high provider adoption. They’ll share how these solutions supported real-time documentation accuracy and drove more complete HCC capture—ultimately creating an end-to-end workflow that improved compliance, financial performance and provider satisfaction. This complimentary event will be held from 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. ET on November 13. Register here.

The Southwest regional meeting will be held on November 6 from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in Phoenix, AZ. Register Today!

Our meeting in Pheonix will include speakers from Banner Health, Guidehealth, Integrated Health Partners, Commonwealth ACO, LHC Group, and our event sponsor, Innovaccer. Topics include Leveraging strategies to manage Medicaid populations in VBC, winning at VBC, bridging gaps, using AI to engage patients, and policy updates affecting the region. Regional events are open to NAACOS members, non-member ACOs, and value-based care providers. In-person events are $250 per registrant, and each NAACOS ACO and value-based care provider member receives one complimentary registration per calendar year with unlimited additional registrations to be purchased at the prevailing rate. Contact [email protected] to utilize your complimentary registration or with any questions. These events are not open to non-sponsoring business partners.

Attending the Southwest regional meeting?
Join Innovaccer for dinner, bowling, and conversation!

Unwind with Innovaccer for an evening of appetizers, dinner, billiards, bowling, and great conversation. Connect with fellow healthcare leaders in a fun, relaxed setting at 801 Entertainment. Please RSVP here.

Mark your calendars, the Data and Analytics Boot Camp 201 will be held January 21-23, and the Clinical and Operations Boot Camp 201 will be held January 28-30. Registration will open soon! These sessions will be presented at an intermediate-to-advanced level and will provide an understanding of Medicare accountable care and population health to maintain administration and operational functions of a successful ACO. Topics include fraud, waste and abuse, cost and utilization trends, specialty engagement with clinical quality measure reporting, clinical guidelines, and much more. If you are interested in teaching others how your organization or team uses best practices and innovation to achieve success in your ACO contracts, email [email protected].

CMMI alums Liz Fowler and Purva Rawal invite NAACOS members to enroll in the Leading Transformation for Value-Based Health Care executive education program at Johns Hopkins. This new, hybrid (in-person and virtual) 10-week intensive brings together cross-disciplinary leaders in health care to gain diverse perspectives on value-based care strategies, processes, and evaluation systems from experts with real-world experience. Meet forward-thinking industry leaders and learn from peers to achieve transformational change. Program starts in January with 2.5 days in person in Washington, D.C. Learn more and apply by December 5 at Leading Transformation for Value-based Health Care.

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