Innovation Insight: CMS’ AHC Model Connects People to Community Resources and Generates $200 M in Savings
February 17, 2026
What’s new: The AHC Model’s final evaluation report shows that the model generated over $200 million in net savings by screening over 1.1 million people with Medicare and Medicaid for five “core needs”— housing instability, food insecurity, transportation problems, utility difficulties and interpersonal violence—and connecting those who had higher-risk of developing complex conditions to community-based resources.
Why it matters: As a time-limited model test, AHC generated crucial evidence in support of whole-person care, demonstrating that screening for upstream drivers of health and linking people to community-based resources improved overall quality of care and produced a significant reduction in health care expenditures, primarily by lowering total utilization of high-cost, avoidable hospitalizations and emergency department visits.
What to expect: The CMS Innovation Center will continue to apply lessons learned from AHC to support people with Medicare and Medicaid; for example, following the conclusion of the model in 2022, Medicare added coverage for community health integration and principal illness navigation services similar to what was tested in the model.
The big picture: The AHC Model demonstrates how addressing needs related to upstream drivers of health through community-based services can contribute to building healthier lives, empowering patients, and promoting high-value care and services, especially amongst people with chronic conditions or multiple needs.
Additional details: The scale of the AHC Model showed it is feasible to screen for needs on a large scale, and the high acceptance rate of navigation services demonstrates that people with both Medicare and Medicaid benefit significantly from these services.
The AHC Model had two tracks — an assistance track, where eligible people were randomly assigned to receive navigation or referral only services, and an alignment track, where eligible people were offered navigation, and participating organizations engaged with stakeholders to align community-based resources with patterns of needs. While there was some variation in results between tracks and payers, both showed savings and improvements in utilization patterns.
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