On July 10, 2025, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a proposed rule to establish the Ambulatory Specialty Model (ASM)—a mandatory value-based payment model for specialists who treat patients with heart failure or low back pain. CMS selected heart failure and low back pain because these chronic conditions represent roughly 6% of total, annual spend for traditional Medicare. The model is scheduled to run from 2027 through 2031 and represents an expansion of CMS’s ...
