March 13, 2025
The Honorable Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Secretary
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Ave SW
Washington, DC 20201
Dear Secretary Kennedy,
Congratulations on your new leadership role at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). We look forward to working with you to Make America Healthy Again by advancing policies that accelerate the adoption of accountable care.
Accountable for Health is a non-partisan, national advocacy and policy organization expanding the adoption of accountable care. Accountable care aims to improve health care experiences for all patients, including those with chronic disease, by encouraging care coordination, creating care teams that communicate with one another, and supporting individuals in their care journey with services that address their medical and lifestyle needs.
We were encouraged by your statements of strong support for value-based care during your confirmation hearings. We could not be in greater agreement.
Today, nearly half (45 percenti) of Traditional Medicare beneficiaries are participating in accountable care. Under your leadership, HHS can expand opportunities for all Americans to enter accountable, value-based care relationships in which their health care providers are responsible for both their health care outcomes and costs. By emphasizing patient experience and outcomes, accountable care supports health care providers in addressing underlying lifestyle issues that contribute to chronic disease.
Accountable care models have been shown to increase investment in care coordinationii and chronic disease management,iii leading to improved health outcomes, greater efficiencies, and lower utilization and costs in the long-term.iv
We look forward to working with you to advance the movement in the health care system toward accountable care that achieves better outcomes, improves care experiences, increases access and lowers costs.
Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if Accountable for Health can be a resource for you. I can be reached at mmcdermott@accountableforhealth.org or 202-487-1393.
Sincerely,
Mara McDermott
CEO
Accountable for Health
ii CMS (January 2024), Evaluation of the Next Generation Accountable Care Organization (NGACO) Model.
iii NEJM (January 2017), What Is Value-Based Healthcare?
iv CMS (December 2023), Independent Evaluation of Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+).
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In a new Health Affairs Forefront piece published on October 7, Accountable for Health CEO Mara McDermott, HarmonyCares’ Will Robinson, and C-TAC’s Kris Smith explain how Medicare’s experience with skin substitutes shows the promise of accountable care and what still needs to happen to fully leverage ACOs as early fraud detectors.
Congratulations on your new leadership role at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. We look forward to working with you to advance policies that accelerate the adoption of accountable care to improve health care for all Americans.
The letter calls for Congress to pass an end-of-year health care package that includes an extension of Medicare’s Advanced Alternative Payment Model (AAPM) incentive payments to ensure physicians and other health care providers have the resources needed to support beneficiaries’ continued access to quality care.
