Cardiowell is part of the new CMS Medicare ACCESS Program
By Yair Lurie, Founder & CEO, Cardiowell
On September 15, 2026, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) held the formal launch of the ACCESS Model and opened a public directory where people with Medicare, and their doctors, can find participating programs [1].
Cardiowell 360 is in that directory. We serve Original Medicare patients in Colorado who have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity or prediabetes, at $0 a month to the patient [2].
This week I compared the list of companies CMS accepted into ACCESS with the list of programs that were live in the directory. The gap between the two lists says a lot about how hard it is to launch a program under this model.
What the ACCESS Model is
ACCESS stands for Advancing Chronic Care with Effective, Scalable Solutions. It is a voluntary, 10-year model from the CMS Innovation Center that began on July 5, 2026 [3].
The model tests a new way to pay for chronic care called Outcome-Aligned Payments. Participating organizations receive recurring payments for managing a patient's condition, and full payment depends on measurable health improvement [3]. For high blood pressure, that means the blood pressure has to come down from where the patient started.
ACCESS launched with four tracks [3]:
Early cardio-kidney-metabolic (eCKM): high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity or overweight with central obesity, and prediabetes
Cardio-kidney-metabolic (CKM): diabetes, chronic kidney disease (stage 3a or 3b), and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease
Musculoskeletal (MSK): chronic muscle and joint pain
Behavioral health (BH): depression and anxiety
ACCESS is open to people with Original Medicare. Medicare Advantage members are not eligible.
Participation is voluntary, and patients keep their existing benefits and doctors [1]. CMS says about three in four people with Medicare qualify for at least one track [1].
Accepted vs. live: what launch day showed
At the launch event, CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz described 160 companies engaged with CMS and 40 releasing their programs that day [4]. CMS's chief AI and technology officer, Jacob Schiff, said the directory opened with "nearly 40 organizations available today and more to be added" [4].
Here is what I found when I checked both lists on September 16:
CountEntries on the CMS ACCESS participant list162 legal entitiesDistinct companies (after grouping entities under one brand)148Companies in the eCKM track, which covers high blood pressure113Programs live in the Medicare.gov ACCESS directory39Live programs that treat high blood pressure29Live high blood pressure programs available in Colorado13Live high blood pressure programs built for Colorado only1 (Cardiowell 360)
A note on the counting. The CMS list names legal entities, and seven companies registered more than one: Aledade (2), Cadence (3), Devoted (6), Isaac Health (2), Pair Team (2), SonderMind (3) and Story Health (3) [5]. Grouping them gives 148 companies. A few entities with different names could still share an owner, so treat 148 as approximate.
With that adjustment, about 1 in 4 accepted companies had a live program on launch day. The ratio is the same for high blood pressure: 29 of 113.
This is a launch-day snapshot. ACCESS uses rolling start dates, and CMS expects more programs to join the directory [3][4].
CMS also notes that most participants had never served Medicare beneficiaries before [5]. For a company new to Medicare, enrollment, staffing, patient onboarding and reporting all take time.
Carrie Nixon of Nixon Law Group, who works with three July-cohort participants, wrote this week that current participants are still working through patient acquisition, workflows and technology [6].
High blood pressure programs in Colorado
For a Medicare patient in Colorado with high blood pressure, the directory lists 13 programs [2].
Twelve are national or multistate programs covering between 29 and 52 states and territories: WHOOP Connected Care, Welldoc, Qurate Medical Group, PsynergyHealth, Kardia Medical Group, GO MD USA, FitOn Care, Devoted Medical, Ciba Health, BetterBrain, Berry Street and Altitude [2].
Cardiowell 360 is the only one that serves Colorado alone.
Other companies live in the directory include Withings Medical and Cadence, which currently serve other states [2]. Cardiowell is a bootstrapped company, and we went live in the same directory on the same day as these well-known names.
What going live took
Getting accepted into ACCESS and running a live program are two separate milestones. For Cardiowell 360, going live required:
Medicare enrollment for Cardiowell 360 as a care organization.
A physician-supervised nursing team of RNs and LPNs to review readings, follow up with patients and coordinate with their doctors.
Cellular blood pressure cuffs ready to ship. Readings upload on their own over a cellular connection. Patients don't pair Bluetooth or download an app, which matters for older adults.
A reporting connection to CMS. ACCESS organizations report outcomes to CMS. We built a mock CMS server and an internal testing tool so we could test our integration while we waited for sandbox credentials.
Care coordination with the patient's own doctor. ACCESS organizations are required to share care plans and important updates with primary care and referring clinicians [4].
Behind the cuff and the nursing team sits the Cardiowell Hypertension OS: the provider dashboard, AI-assisted review of readings, BP Buddy for patient reminders and education, and workflows built around faster medication titration.
Why this matters for value-based hypertension care
For years, Medicare has paid for remote patient monitoring (RPM) by activity: days of readings transmitted and minutes of staff time. A practice can bill those codes every month without the patient's blood pressure improving.
That model is under pressure. CMS's proposed 2027 Physician Fee Schedule, released July 14, 2026, proposes to revalue RPM device payments to reflect lower device costs, require an initiating visit before RPM starts, and limit these services to clinical staff employed by the practice [7]. CMS is also asking for comments on bundling the RPM and remote therapeutic monitoring codes into four new G-codes [7].
ACCESS pays for something else: whether the patient's health improved from their own baseline. High blood pressure is one of the clearest conditions to measure this way. It is measured at home with a validated cuff, and the target is well defined.
At the launch, Dr. Oz called blood pressure the "simplest idea just because you can measure it," and then asked the next question: "What are you going to do about it?" [4]. That is the problem Cardiowell was built to solve. The reading is the starting point. The work is getting the patient to control.
ACCESS is expanding in 2027
CMS announced that starting April 1, 2027, ACCESS will add tracks for heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), substance use disorder and tobacco cessation, along with a follow-on period for chronic musculoskeletal pain [1][3].
CMS will also publish a reference specification for a maternal cardio-kidney-metabolic track that includes hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Other payers, including Medicaid plans, can use it on a voluntary basis [4].
The model is also reaching beyond Original Medicare. CMS said 17 major health plans, representing more than 165 million Americans, have committed to ACCESS-aligned payment approaches across Medicare Advantage, commercial insurance and state Medicaid programs [4]. If that commitment holds, paying for blood pressure outcomes could become common across payers.
For Colorado clinicians and patients
Clinicians. Primary care physicians, specialists, rural health clinics, federally qualified health centers and pharmacies can refer patients to ACCESS organizations, receive ongoing updates and bill for co-management [4]. You remain the patient's doctor. Dr. Jen Brull, board chair of the American Academy of Family Physicians, described a referral at the launch as "adding a member to the team" [4].
Patients. If you have Original Medicare, live in Colorado and have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity or prediabetes, you can enroll with Cardiowell 360 at $0 a month [2]. You can find us in the directory at Medicare.gov/ACCESS, call 1-800-MEDICARE, or start at cardiowell360.com.
Frequently asked questions
What is the CMS ACCESS Model? ACCESS (Advancing Chronic Care with Effective, Scalable Solutions) is a voluntary, 10-year CMS Innovation Center model that began July 5, 2026. It pays participating organizations recurring Outcome-Aligned Payments for managing chronic conditions, with full payment tied to measurable health improvement [3].
Which ACCESS programs treat high blood pressure in Colorado? As of September 16, 2026, the Medicare.gov ACCESS directory lists 13 high blood pressure programs available in Colorado. Cardiowell 360 is the only one that serves Colorado alone. The others are national or multistate programs [2].
How many ACCESS participants were live at launch? CMS lists 162 participant entities, or about 148 distinct companies. On September 16, 2026, 39 programs were live in the Medicare.gov directory, about 1 in 4. CMS expects more programs to join on a rolling basis [2][3][5].
Does ACCESS cost patients anything? Cardiowell 360 lists $0 a month. Some other programs in the directory list a cost of no more than $13 a month [2]. ACCESS is open only to people with Original Medicare [1].
Can my doctor stay involved if I join an ACCESS program? Yes. ACCESS organizations must share care plans and updates with primary care and referring clinicians, and those clinicians can bill Medicare for co-management [4].
What conditions will ACCESS add in 2027? Starting April 1, 2027: heart failure, COPD, substance use disorder and tobacco cessation, plus a follow-on period for chronic musculoskeletal pain [1][3].
References
[1] Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (2026, September 15). CMS Adds Medicare Options to Help People Manage Substance Use Disorder, Heart Failure, Other Common Chronic Conditions. Press release.
[2] Medicare.gov. ACCESS organization search results. Accessed September 16, 2026.
[3] CMS Innovation Center. ACCESS (Advancing Chronic Care with Effective, Scalable Solutions) Model. Accessed September 16, 2026.
[4] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2026, September 15). Building a Healthier America: CMS ACCESS and a New Chapter in Health Innovation. Launch event recording.
[5] CMS Innovation Center. ACCESS Model Participants. Updated September 15, 2026.
[6] Nixon, C. (2026, September 15). LinkedIn post on the ACCESS Model launch and new tracks.
[7] Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (2026, July 14). Calendar Year (CY) 2027 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule. Fact sheet.
Yair Lurie is the founder and CEO of Cardiowell, a hypertension management company. Cardiowell 360 is a physician-supervised remote care practice and a participant in the CMS ACCESS Model, serving Original Medicare patients in Colorado. Cardiowell's Hypertension OS combines cellular blood pressure monitoring, AI coaching through BP Buddy, and clinical workflow support for clinics.
Clinicians and patients in Colorado can start at cardiowell360.com. Clinics interested in remote hypertension management can visit cardiowell.com or connect with Yair on LinkedIn.