Vytalize Health was one of two ACOs that joined NAACOS’s Fall Advocacy Summit and Hill Day in Washington, D.C., to advocate for its partner providers and the future of accountable care as a whole.
After 80+ congressional meetings, the message was clear: through ACOs, primary care physicians are driving lasting, positive change for Medicare patients, lowering costs while improving outcomes.
What happened at the NAACOS Fall Advocacy Summit and Hill Day?
Advocacy rarely happens in a single meeting or a single voice. It happens when hundreds of physicians, practice leaders, policymakers, and industry advocates show up in the same room and align shared priorities in every conversation that follows. That’s exactly what unfolded on Sep. 16–17, 2026.
The Advocacy Summit reinforced the bipartisan commitment to accountable care. Sessions brought together CMS officials, members of the House Doctors Caucus, physicians, hospitals, health plans, and industry partners to address the most pressing challenges in value-based care; from CMS payment policy and MACRA’s decade of lessons, to chronic disease management and aligning financial incentives across the system. During day two, those conversations moved directly to Capitol Hill, where Vytalize Health and several partner providers joined more than 80 congressional meetings across the House and Senate, carrying the same unified message to policymakers with the power to act.
One meeting stood out amongst those congressional engagements: the group connected with the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee that Vytalize Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Amer Alnajar had testified before on Medicare fraud in skin substitute spending. That continuity is a reminder of what sustained advocacy can build, and what emerged from the event was a powerful reminder that ACOs are essential to building a stronger, more sustainable future for primary care.
Why does Vytalize Health say ACOs are critical to primary care’s future?
More than half of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries (over 14 million Americans) are now cared for through ACOs. Collectively, ACOs have generated $37.4 billion in savings, more than $700 per beneficiary, while demonstrating lower hospitalizations and better patient outcomes. For policymakers weighing where to direct limited healthcare resources, that combination of scale, savings, and outcomes makes a compelling case for continued investment rather than retrenchment.
What legislative priorities were advocated on Capitol Hill?
The Hill meetings focused on setting near-term and long-term priorities designed to protect and modernize accountable care.
Near-term priorities aimed at preventing backsliding:
- Extending Advanced APM incentives to maintain financial support for practices transitioning to value-based care
- Freezing APM qualifying thresholds to provide regulatory stability and predictability for ACO growth
- Stopping cuts to Medicare physician payments that threaten physician participation in accountable care models
Long-term priorities aimed at building a stronger foundation:
- Stabilizing Medicare payments to reflect inflation and support practice sustainability
- Promoting broader adoption of accountable care through better-aligned financial incentives
- Modernizing ACO benchmarks to increase sustainability and reduce reporting burden
Real Change Happens When Everyone Shows Up
The NAACOS Fall Advocacy Summit and Hill Day succeeded through collective effort: physicians sharing patient stories, policy experts translating data into legislative language, and industry leaders building relationships with the offices that will vote on these priorities next.
Here’s what some of those physicians had to say:
“As private practices struggle to survive in this very fluid environment, it is useful to learn from my fellow physicians who are also traveling down this same path. For years I have struggled in the various medical societies to ensure the integrity of the private practice. It was heartening to hear from Vytalize the same desires. To maintain the foundation of the private practice of medicine and cut the cost curve for Medicare, ACOs need to flourish!” — Dr. Joe Davison, West Wichita Family Physicians
“Continued support for value-based care and payment reform is critical to maintaining access to high-quality primary care. Although our participation [with Vytalize] has been relatively brief, we have already seen meaningful improvements in hospital readmissions among certain high-risk patients. One remarkable example is that of a patient with very complex care needs who had been in the emergency room almost weekly and admitted to the hospital nine times over three months. After enrolling in the Vytal Care+ program and receiving additional support through Vytalize, this patient has not been to the emergency room and has not had a hospitalization in almost three months. These early results reinforce our belief that accountable care models can improve both quality and efficiency.” — Dr. Toby Sadkin, Primary Care Health Partners
Vytalize Health remains committed to advocating for partner providers and primary care long after Hill Day ends, translating what happens in Washington into support that reaches the practices and patients who depend on accountable care. To learn more about how Vytalize Health supports independent primary care practices in value-based care, reach out to our team.
