Oura and Counsel Health are teaming up to participate in CMS' 10-year chronic condition management program, betting that continuous health data from Oura's smart ring paired with medical AI can help move the needle on conditions like hypertension.
Counsel Health, an AI-native primary care company, plans to participate in CMS' Advancing Chronic Care with Effective Scalable Solutions (ACCESS) Model under the early cardio-kidney-metabolic (eCKM) track, with smart ring maker Oura serving as the preferred wearable partner.
It is an early example of how the CMS chronic care initiative could become a proving ground for AI-powered, wearable-enabled care delivery.
Counsel Health and Oura shared the news first with Fierce Healthcare.
The ACCESS model collaboration builds on the companies' existing partnership, unveiled in late May, that integrates clinical care directly into the Oura app.
Beginning in early 2027, Counsel Health will offer no-cost chronic care management beginning to eligible Medicare beneficiaries with conditions such as hypertension, obesity, hyperlipidemia and prediabetes. Participating in the ACCESS Model broadens both companies' reach to more Medicare patients.
More than 90% of adults aged 65+ live with a chronic condition, while over two-thirds of Medicare beneficiaries are managing multiple chronic diseases. The ACCESS Model is designed to expand access to technology-enabled chronic care for this population. Medicare patients will be able to access the program through Counsel’s desktop or mobile app. Clinical eligibility will be confirmed by a Counsel physician, including whether the patient has one or more qualifying conditions.
As a technology and marketing partner, the Oura app will promote Counsel’s ACCESS program to Oura members and connect interested members with Counsel. Counsel will independently confirm clinical eligibility and manage enrollment and care. The AI-driven primary care company will leverage biometric health insights from the Oura app to deliver more personalized care informed by continuous biometric data, according to the company.
Oura users already are using biometric data from the smart ring and the Oura app to get insights on their day-to-day health, Counsel Health adds clinical capabilities on top of that, Rishi Khakhkhar, M.D., Chief Medical Officer at Counsel Health, told Fierce Healthcare. Counsel’s medical AI and physicians help Oura users interpret those signals and guide next steps.
"A core thesis of ours, and I think Oura shares this thesis, is that the worlds of wellness and care are going to get closer and closer together, and the care providers are going to have to learn a bit more about wellness, and the wellness providers will have to get rigorous around care, so it's been a really fruitful partnership," Khakhkhar said.
He added, "We are strong believers in where the wearable hardware is going. These wearable devices are more able to detect things like high blood pressure
Counsel also aims to "bring care to where people live instead of bringing patients to clinics" so the partnership with Oura was a "natural fit," he noted.
Oura has high engagement with its now 5 million paid members, most who wear the device approximately 23 hours a day.
Counsel and Oura tout promising early results from the nascent partnership--since launch, members who saw a physician rated their care experience 4.6 out of 5, reflecting strong satisfaction with the quality and convenience of care.
In the first nine weeks, 36,000 Oura members completed onboarding to Counsel Health services and 70% of members were satisfied with that experience, Ricky Bloomfield, M.D., Oura's chief medical officer, told Fierce Healthcare. "Sixty percent of people said that they would be disappointed if we took it away. They are now dependent on this and feel like this is helping them improve their health," he noted.
Oura launches the Counsel Health service inside Oura Labs, its innovation hub. So far, 15% of Oura Labs testers who received a symptom radar alert, a notificaiton that detects signs of strain, choose to connect to care using the Counsel integration. "Fifteen percent is a huge number, and that was over 10,000 members who did that, so we're starting to see this happen already," Bloomfield said.
"That's a strong foundation on which to build and learn with ACCESS," he added.
The ACCESS program gives Oura and Counsel the opportunity to study that model "at scale, and to better understand how continuous biometric data, combined with physician-led care, can support Medicare beneficiaries managing hypertension, obesity, and other early cardio-kidney-metabolic conditions,” Bloomfield said.
Oura says members over the age of 65 are among the most engaged age groups using the device, ranking highly in daily app engagement. They are also well-positioned to benefit: 20% of Oura members in this age group have a BMI of 30 or higher, underscoring the relevance of ACCESS's focus on obesity and related chronic conditions, according to the company.
Unveiled in December, the ACCESS Model is a 10-year federal payment program from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) that gives digital health companies outcome-aligned payments for using technology and AI to manage chronic diseases. The value-based payment program aims to reimburse digital health companies based on patient outcomes rather than services delivered.
Other connected device companies also are participating in the ACCESS model including WHOOP and Withings. Whoop, which makes a health tracker device, is participating in ACCESS through its affiliated health care provider, WHOOP Physician Services.
"Early detection of disease is a big part of what ACCESS focuses on, moving us from a more reactive healthcare system to a more proactive healthcare system. And to do that, you just need data on people. You actually need to know what to intervene on before you go intervene," Khakhkhar said.
Counsel and Oura's collaboration combines early detection through continuous monitoring of wearable data with convenient, ongoing engagement with an AI-driven, messaging-based platform and physician support. That approach helps shift chronic care management from an episodic model to continuous, always-available care, he noted.
"ACCESS is designed to give innovative models like ours an opportunity to serve the patients who need us most," Khakhkhar said.
The ACCESS model focuses on clinical improvement or control of a condition based on each person’s starting point, for example, helping a patient with hypertension lower their blood pressure by 10 mmHg, CMS said. For the 2026–2027 performance period, at least 50% of aligned beneficiaries must meet all required outcome targets for the participant to receive full payment.
The payment rates (PDF) for the ACCESS model, unveiled back in early March, were lower than the industry expected and fall below current billing models.
Counsel is well-positioned for the ACCESS model because its AI-first, messaging-based care model can deliver high-quality care more efficiently than traditional approaches, Khakhkhar said. ACCESS's relatively modest reimbursement rates may be challenging for providers still operating under traditional care models, he noted.
Oura's participation in the ACCESS model comes as it pushes deeper into healthcare services. The company, which filed to go public earlier this month, aims to build an artificial intelligence-powered health platform. Oura's smart rings continuously track more than 50 health metrics, including heart rate, sleep, daily movement and activity, stress, fertility windows and metabolic health.
Last year, the company got authorization from the Food and Drug Administration to launch a blood pressure study. That study will evaluate an algorithm to generate blood pressure insights as the company plans to build new blood pressure features. Oura said the study represents one of the company's most ambitious preventive health initiatives to date in terms of the scale of data and updates to the algorithm, reinforcing Oura Labs’ mission to bridge the gap between consumer wearables and clinical research."