Premier Urges CMS to Delay Ambulatory Specialty Model

Premier and six national healthcare organizations urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to delay the Jan. 1, 2027 launch of the mandatory Ambulatory Specialty Model (ASM), citing outstanding operational and technical challenges that have limited participants’ ability to prepare. In a letter to CMS, the groups called on the agency to delay implementation until the model’s infrastructure is fully operational and tested. If CMS maintains the Jan. 1 start date, they urged the agency to protect participants from downside financial risk during the first year.

The organizations also recommended that CMS:

• Provide more timely data, guidance and technical support;
• Establish a single, consolidated help desk;
• Share prospective cost and quality performance thresholds before each performance year; and
• Allow practice-level quality reporting to reduce administrative burden.

The groups said addressing these issues before implementation would help ensure participants focus on patient care and that ASM’s early results accurately reflect the model’s performance rather than implementation challenges.