Published by APM Connect on 11/9/2026 CJR-X does not begin until 2028, and hospitals keep asking the same question: how are we going to do in a model we have no data for yet? Session 3 of the Downside Risk Bootcamp answered it the only way it can be answered, by running national Medicare fee-for-service claims from 2023 through 2025 against the CJR-X rules and seeing what comes out. The session walked the national picture first, then took one blinded hospital apart line by li

Published by APM Connect on 11/9/2026 Sarah Chuzi, MD, MSc; Karen Joynt Maddox, MD, MPH; Tara Lagu, MD, MPH. JAMA Viewpoint, published online November 2, 2026. Heart failure (HF) is one of the most evidence-rich areas of cardiovascular medicine, yet a persistent gap separates proven therapies from the care patients actually receive. In this JAMA Viewpoint, the authors argue that closing that gap requires more than changing clinician behavior. It requires infrastructure such a

Members Access the Recording and Slides. If your organization has physicians participating in the Ambulatory Specialty Model (ASM), the CCA is not optional. It is one of two required Improvement Activities under the ASM, and every eligible participant, whether a cardiologist treating heart failure patients or an orthopedic surgeon managing low back pain must complete it. You don't have to figure this out alone. This is exactly why APM Connect exists. We hosted a live webinar

CMS is changing how certain cardiologists, orthopedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, pain management specialists, anesthesiologists and physical medicine and rehabilitation physicians treating Medicare patients with heart failure and low back pain are paid, and it comes with downside risk.

12.04.25 | Presented by: David Pittman, Founder Pittman Policy Strategies and Sarah Habeeb Director, Government Programs, Baylor Scott & White Quality Alliance​​​ CMS finalized a new mandatory value-based payment model requiring downside risk for physicians treating heart failure and low back pain. With the Ambulatory Specialty Model starting in January 2027, join David Pittman and Sarah Habeeb to discuss what this means for physician practices, hospitals, and ACOs, where CMS