American College of Lifestyle Medicine applauds two CMS models aligned with lifestyle medicine practice and reimbursement

The medical professional society representing more than 15,000 health professionals nationwide calls the newly announced CMS ELEVATE and ACCESS models significant opportunities for the practice of lifestyle medicine.

2025-12-12

(Press-News.org)

The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) applauds two new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) models that could significantly reshape the landscape for lifestyle medicine practice and reimbursement.

The first model, The Make America Healthy Again: Enhancing Lifestyle and Evaluating Value-based Approaches Through Evidence (MAHA ELEVATE) for Original Medicare, was announced Thursday, December 11, 2025. The model will provide approximately $100 million to fund three-year cooperative agreements for up to 30 proposals that promote health and prevention for Original Medicare beneficiaries. The proposals will utilize evidence-based, whole-person care approaches — including lifestyle medicine interventions — currently not covered by Original Medicare. The model will also gather and evaluate new data on cost and quality to inform future interventions promoting healthy lifestyle behaviors and ultimately reduce spending in Original Medicare. CMS will release a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) in early 2026 for the first cohort, and the voluntary model will launch on September 1, 2026. The model will begin on September 1, 2026. The second cohort will begin one year later. Participating organizations will receive approximately $3 million each over three years of funding to collect quality and cost data on their interventions.

“ACLM has been advocating for lifestyle medicine to be the foundation of health and all health care for over 20 years,” said ACLM CEO Susan Benigas. “This action brings that vision closer to reality for our 15,000 clinician members, who are passionately working every day to bring the power of root-cause, lifestyle-first treatment to patients for the prevention, treatment, and even reversal of chronic disease. We applaud CMS for its leadership in bringing this long-awaited opportunity for hope and healing to the Medicare population through the ELEVATE model, introducing not only meaningful flexibility in care delivery, but also dedicated funding to support innovative, whole-person approaches that can truly transform outcomes."

The ELEVATE announcement comes on the heels of the December 4 Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) announcement of Advancing Chronic Care with Effective, Scalable Solutions (ACCESS), a new voluntary payment model that shifts Medicare to an outcome-based payment system for chronic-disease care. In this model, providers are paid not per procedure but based on patient health improvements.

The model pays providers to connect their patients with technology companies that meaningfully address chronic disease, including high blood pressure, diabetes, chronic musculoskeletal pain, and depression. The new model is a 10-year payment program designed to support technology-enabled care for Medicare beneficiaries with chronic conditions.

“ACCESS is one of the most lifestyle medicine-aligned, well-thought-out demonstration models ever designed, with a lot of flexibility to deliver care, offering options for patients and providers while NOT paying for encounters, but for outcomes,” said ACLM President Padmaja Patel, MD, DipABLM, FACLM. “It requires real-time data sharing so that both patients and providers can make informed decisions about whom to partner with. We applaud CMMI for working toward outcomes-based solutions for lifestyle medicine reimbursement.”

About ACLM®

The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) is the nation's medical professional society advancing the field of lifestyle medicine as the foundation of a redesigned, value-based and equitable healthcare delivery system, essential to achieving the Quintuple Aim and whole-person health. ACLM represents, advocates for, trains, certifies, and equips its members to identify and eradicate the root cause of chronic disease by optimizing modifiable risk factors. ACLM is filling the gaping void of lifestyle medicine in medical education, providing more than 1.2 million hours of lifestyle medicine education to physicians and other health professionals since 2004, while also advancing research, clinical practice and reimbursement strategies.

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