Make America Healthy Again - Enhancing Lifestyle and Evaluating Value-based Approaches Through Evidence

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), through its Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), is soliciting applications for the MAHA ELEVATE model, formally titled “Make America Healthy Again: Enhancing Lifestyle and Evaluating Value-Based Approaches Through Evidence.” This funding opportunity seeks to promote whole-person functional and lifestyle medicine (FLM) approaches in clinical care for Medicare Fee-For-Service (FFS) beneficiaries. The model will test whether integrating evidence-based lifestyle interventions—particularly those that include nutrition and physical activity—can improve chronic disease management, health outcomes, and reduce healthcare costs in the Medicare population. CMS aims to assess the feasibility, impact, and scalability of these interventions and their potential for broader Medicare coverage. CMS will fund up to 30 recipients across two annual cohorts, starting in 2026 and 2027. Awards will be made as cooperative agreements with substantial federal involvement. Each awardee may receive up to $3.3 million over a three-year period, disbursed in two 18-month budget periods and tied to milestone achievements, including patient recruitment and operational benchmarks. A total of $100 million is anticipated for the entire program. Importantly, recipients must deliver at least one service not currently covered under Medicare and demonstrate its evidence-based safety, effectiveness, and cost efficiency. Programs must align with the American College of Lifestyle Medicine’s six pillars of care: nutrition, physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances, and positive social connection. Eligible applicants include a wide range of organizations such as health systems, academic institutions, private practices, federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), rural health clinics (RHCs), tribal and urban Indian health programs, state and local governments, and community-based organizations. Applicants must demonstrate clinical oversight capacity and experience in integrating FLM interventions into conventional care. Non-clinical entities must partner with clinical providers and submit formal partnership agreements. Participants must be able to recruit Original Medicare beneficiaries and collect both quantitative and qualitative data in compliance with HIPAA and HHS data privacy requirements. CMS will use these data to evaluate health outcomes, cost impact, and implementation efficacy. Applicants are required to submit a Letter of Intent (LOI) by April 10, 2026, and full applications are due by May 15, 2026. Applications must be submitted through Grants.gov and must include multiple components, such as project and budget narratives, a logic model, a business assessment, partnership documentation, and supporting peer-reviewed literature. CMS strongly encourages randomized control designs or valid alternative comparison methods to ensure rigorous evaluation. Each intervention must measure at least one physical activity or nutrition metric, one behavioral health metric, and at least two evidence-based clinical outcome measures. The performance period will begin as early as October 2026 for Cohort 1, and CMS may offer awards again in 2027 for new interventions or populations. Three of the 30 total awards are reserved for projects specifically addressing cognitive decline and dementia. Awardees will be subject to intensive monitoring, including progress reports, data submission, and regular communication with CMS project officers. Non-compliance with reporting or milestone achievement may result in forfeiture of funding. MAHA ELEVATE is not intended to create a new Medicare benefit category but rather to build evidence to support future policy development. It aims to catalyze a shift in healthcare from reactive, symptom-based care to proactive, preventive interventions grounded in lifestyle and functional medicine. CMS emphasizes that this is a research-based model test and does not imply coverage or regulatory change. Questions about eligibility, application content, or data requirements should be directed to [email protected]. An informational webcast will be held on April 2, 2026.

Proposals should include rigorous outcome measures, a feasible cost savings model, and detailed partnerships with clinical entities to enhance competitiveness.