Two third of Medicare beneficiaries have a major cardiovascular risk factor. Beacon Health and Empirical Health have partnered to scale preventive heart health through Medicare's new ACCESS program.
NEW YORK, March 18, 2026 /PRNewswire-±¬ÁϹ«Éçapp/ -- Beacon Health and Empirical Health today announced a partnership to help primary care physicians prevent and manage cardiovascular disease through Medicare's new ACCESS program, which launches nationwide on July 5, 2026.
Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States, responsible for nearly 1 in 5 deaths each year. The ACCESS program is designed to help primary care practices intervene earlier by supporting ongoing management of cardiovascular risk.
More than two-thirds of Medicare beneficiaries are eligible. Patients with hypertension, diabetes, chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage 3a or 3b, or atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) qualify, as well as patients with two cardiovascular risk factors, including high cholesterol, obesity, or prediabetes.
Under the program, Medicare will pay primary care physicians a co-management fee to support continuous care coordination and risk monitoring for these patients.
Beacon Health and Empirical Health will help practices participate in ACCESS by combining population-level care management with continuous cardiovascular risk monitoring.
"Primary care doctors already know how to prevent heart disease—the problem has always been scale," said Mark Pothen, Co-Founder of Beacon Health. "Beacon's AI workers help practices stay on top of thousands of patients at once, identifying risk, coordinating care, and making value-based prevention actually possible."
Major insurers representing 165 million Americans have pledged to introduce payment arrangements aligned with ACCESS principles by January 1, 2028, including UnitedHealthcare, Aetna, Cigna, Humana, and many Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans.
"Doctors would need 27-hour days to keep up with modern care. So we built something better," said Raquel Rodriguez, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Empirical Health. "Empirical was built to make heart health continuous instead of episodic, doing everything that primary care doctors don't have time for."
Beacon Health provides "value-based care on autopilot," deploying AI workers that help primary care practices monitor patient populations, automate care management, and improve outcomes.
Empirical Health delivers AI-native heart health, helping patients reduce cardiovascular risk through continuous analysis of health data, personalized guidance, and proactive clinical support.
Together, the companies aim to help primary care practices deliver preventive cardiovascular care to millions of Medicare patients.
About Beacon Health
Beacon Health provides AI-powered infrastructure for value-based primary care. Its platform deploys AI workers that help practices monitor patient populations, automate care management, and improve outcomes while reducing administrative burden.
About Empirical Health
Empirical Health is an AI-native heart health platform that helps patients and clinicians reduce cardiovascular risk through personalized insights, continuous monitoring, and evidence-based interventions.
Media Contact
Brandon Ballinger, Empirical Health, 1 4252933809, [email protected], empirical.health
SOURCE Empirical Health
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