Medicare has launched ACCESS (Advancing Chronic Care with Effective, Scalable Solutions), a 10-year CMS program testing a new payment model designed for AI-driven medical care at federal scale. The program was accepted by 150 participants and goes live July 5. ACCESS rewards health outcomes rather than required activities, with participating organizations receiving predictable payments for managing qualifying conditions and earning the full amount only when patients meet measurable health goals like lower blood pressure or reduced pain.
The program covers diabetes, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, obesity, depression, and anxiety. Pair Team, a healthcare company founded in 2019, was selected as one of the participants and deployed a voice AI agent called Flora as its primary patient-facing interface nine months ago. Flora is available 24 hours a day, handles intake, coordinates referrals, and conducts check-ins between clinical visits. Pair Team employs roughly 850 clinical professionals, runs the largest community health workforce in California according to the company, and generates revenue above nine figures. The company has raised about 30 million dollars including from Kleiner Perkins, Kraft Ventures, and Next Ventures.
The traditional Medicare reimbursement model based on time spent with clinicians has no mechanism to pay for AI agents that monitor patients between visits or coordinate services. ACCESS creates that mechanism for the first time. A study by Pair Team researchers peer-reviewed by the Journal of General Internal Medicine showed strong patient engagement and significant reductions in avoidable emergency and inpatient utilization. Pair Team says it currently has partnerships giving it access to roughly 500,000 potential patients and wants to reach a million within three years. The first cohort spans AI doctor startups, virtual nutrition therapy providers, connected device companies, and wearable makers like Whoop. CMS Innovation Center director Abe Sutton and chief AI officer Jacob Shiff, both formerly from venture capital and healthcare startup backgrounds, designed the program.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/12/medicares-new-payment-model-is-built-for-ai-and-most-of-the-tech-world-has-no-idea/