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Governor Moore signs Maryland’s AHEAD Model Expands Primary Care and Health Equity Goals, with MedChi Poised to Play Key Role
On Friday, the State of Maryland signed the AHEAD State Agreement, a new partnership with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI). Officially launched in July 2024, the AHEAD Model builds on Maryland’s pioneering Total Cost of Care (TCOC) model, broadening its scope to address the rising need for health equity and expand access to primary care across the state. The model targets three critical goals: ensuring high-value care, improving access, and advancing health equity, while introducing innovative structures to manage healthcare costs and enhance statewide health outcomes.
Central to the AHEAD Model is an ambitious framework to boost primary care investment and accountability. In late 2024, preliminary primary care benchmarks will be set, followed by a 2027 goal for establishing all-payer targets in primary care funding. The model will also require a Medicaid Advanced Primary Care Program to support comprehensive care for patients, with measures that aim to coordinate care more effectively, reduce disparities, and ultimately ensure all Maryland residents have access to robust primary healthcare. MedChi, the Maryland State Medical Society, welcomes the primary care improvements but will continue to work to address other structural issues such as access and patient protection.
MedChi is committed to collaborating with state officials to achieve Maryland’s ambitious goals, with a strong focus on enhancing physician participation and maintaining the quality of care. However, there is still substantial work to be done around the model’s technical aspects and overall patient protection. One critical area under development is ensuring that the AHEAD Model includes safeguards to protect patient choice and physician access, along with clear compliance and accountability measures. Enforcement guidelines within the model outline corrective action plans, potential adjustments, and even model termination for non-compliance, but the full details on patient protection requirements are still in progress. Additionally, technical aspects like data sharing, privacy protections, and quality measurement criteria will be refined over the next few years, to secure the model’s future success and sustainability.
The model’s governance will be overseen by the Maryland Commission on Health Equity, which will provide ongoing advice to Maryland’s Department of Health (MDH) and the Health Services Cost Review Commission (HSCRC) on meeting population health, quality, and equity targets. With a phased approach stretching from 2024 to 2034, the AHEAD Model offers a unique opportunity for Maryland to lead health innovations while addressing critical healthcare gaps across communities. For MedChi and Maryland’s healthcare leaders, the focus remains clear: build a sustainable system that empowers all Marylanders to achieve optimal health.
Here is a link to the full agreement and a slide deck outlining high points.
For more information about Maryland's progress with the AHEAD program:
read more here.
Gene Ransom III
CEO, MedChi, The Maryland State Medical Society
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