NAACOS Welcomes New CMS MAHA ELEVATE Model

Statement from Emily Brower, president and chief executive officer, the National Association of ACOs

WASHINGTON (December 11, 2025) – The National Association of ACOs welcomes CMS’ announcement of the upcoming Innovation Center model, Make America Healthy Again: Enhancing Lifestyle and Evaluating Value-based Approaches Through Evidence (MAHA ELEVATE). The funded proposals will help build the evidence base for preventive and integrative care strategies that are not currently covered under traditional Medicare.

Currently, many accountable care organizations use shared savings to provide patients interventions that are shown to help prevent or improve chronic conditions. These include physical activity and nutrition programs. We expect ACOs will be interested in pursuing this opportunity to build on their local efforts to help advance preventive and integrative care strategies that could shape future Medicare payment policies.

We look forward to rapidly scaling any MAHA ELEVATE interventions that help keep seniors healthy. This will help better align benefits with those that many Medicare Advantage plans offer to beneficiaries.

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The National Association of Accountable Care Organizations (NAACOS) is a member-led, member-governed nonprofit of nearly 500 ACOs and value-based care entities in Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial insurance working on behalf of physicians, health systems, and other providers across the nation. These value-based care providers seek to improve the quality of care while reducing costs. NAACOS represents more than 9 million beneficiary lives through Medicare’s population health-focused payment and delivery models.