CMS MAHA ELEVATE: What Senior Living Operators Need to Know About the $100 Million Value-Based Care Program

CMS is making $100 million available for senior living communities to get paid for the wellness and lifestyle programming they already provide, and most operators do not know this program exists yet. The Make America Healthy Again: Enhancing Lifestyle and Evaluating Value-based Approaches Through Evidence (MAHA ELEVATE) model, announced by CMS’s Innovation Center, funds 3-year cooperative agreements that promote whole-person care for Original Medicare beneficiaries. The mandatory Letter of Intent deadline was April 10, 2026, with full applications due May 15, 2026. The first cohort launches October 2026.

This is not a distant policy shift. It is an active funding opportunity that explicitly includes senior housing among eligible participants. Operators who understand this program now can position their communities for a revenue stream that rewards what the best senior living communities have been doing for years: keeping residents healthy through nutrition, physical activity, social engagement, and preventive care.

What MAHA ELEVATE Actually Is

MAHA ELEVATE stands for Make America Healthy Again: Enhancing Lifestyle and Evaluating Value-based Approaches Through Evidence. It is a CMS Innovation Center model designed to address the chronic disease epidemic through evidence-based, whole-person care approaches that are not currently covered by Original Medicare.

The program funds up to 30 proposals across two cohorts (2026 and 2027), with each receiving multi-year cooperative agreements. The total funding envelope is approximately $100 million.

What Makes This Different from Other CMS Models

Most CMS value-based care programs focus on acute care, hospital readmissions, or post-acute skilled nursing. MAHA ELEVATE is different because it targets the upstream drivers of chronic disease through lifestyle interventions. The six core focus areas are:

Nutrition - evidence-based dietary interventions and nutritional counseling
Physical activity - exercise programming, mobility programs, fall prevention
Social connections - isolation reduction, community engagement, intergenerational programs
Stress management - mental health support, mindfulness, cognitive stimulation
Harmful substance avoidance - substance use awareness and reduction programs
Sleep - sleep hygiene education and environmental optimization

If you run a senior living community, you should recognize this list. These are not clinical interventions that require new infrastructure. These are the wellness, dining, activities, and social programs that high-quality senior living communities already operate daily.

The difference is that, until now, Medicare has not paid for them. MAHA ELEVATE changes that.

Why Senior Living Operators Should Pay Attention

You Already Do This Work

Assisted living and independent living communities spend significant resources on dining programs, fitness classes, social activities, memory stimulation, and wellness initiatives. These programs improve resident outcomes, reduce hospitalizations, and increase length of stay. But they have always been funded entirely through resident fees, with no Medicare contribution.

MAHA ELEVATE creates a pathway for communities to receive federal funding for outcomes they are already producing. According to McKnight’s Senior Living, the program “enables senior living providers to get paid for what they’re already doing.”

The Competition for This Funding Is Low

As of early April 2026, awareness of MAHA ELEVATE in the senior living industry remains limited. NIC’s Spring 2026 Conference featured value-based care as a recurring theme, but most of the conversation centered on PACE programs and skilled nursing facilities. Few operators are connecting this specific CMS model to their independent and assisted living communities.

This limited awareness creates a first-mover advantage for operators who apply early. CMS is funding only 30 proposals across two cohorts. Communities that submit strong Letters of Intent and applications will face less competition than programs that have been widely publicized across the industry.

Revenue Diversification at a Critical Time

The senior living industry is navigating a period of rising labor costs, regulatory pressure on referral fees, and shifting consumer expectations. Adding a CMS-funded value-based care component diversifies revenue beyond private-pay resident fees and helps communities that are positioned for value-based care attract families who are comparing options.

NIC MAP data shows occupancy projected above 90% by end of 2026. In a supply-constrained market, the differentiator is no longer filling beds. It is demonstrating measurable outcomes. Value-based care metrics give operators a framework to quantify what they deliver, which strengthens both marketing and operational positioning.

How to Position Your Community for Value-Based Care

Step 1: Audit Your Existing Wellness Programming

Document every program your community operates that maps to MAHA ELEVATE’s six focus areas. Be specific:

Nutrition: Do you offer dietitian-developed menus? Nutritional assessments at move-in? Specialized diets for diabetes management, heart health, or cognitive function?
Physical activity: What exercise classes do you run? Do you have fall prevention programs? Physical therapy partnerships? Walking groups?
Social connections: How do you measure and address resident isolation? Do you track social engagement participation rates?
Stress management: Do you offer mental health screenings? Cognitive stimulation programming? Meditation or mindfulness sessions?
Sleep: What is your approach to sleep hygiene? Do you manage lighting, noise, and temperature to support sleep quality?

The audit is not about creating new programs. It is about documenting the programs you already run in the language CMS uses to evaluate applications.

Step 2: Build Measurement Infrastructure

CMS requires data. MAHA ELEVATE will “gather and evaluate new data on cost and quality to inform future interventions promoting healthy lifestyle behaviors and ultimately reduce spending in Original Medicare.” Communities that can demonstrate measurable outcomes, including reduced hospitalizations, improved functional status, lower Medicare spending per beneficiary, will have the strongest applications.

Start tracking:

Hospital transfer rates and 30-day readmission rates for your residents
Resident participation rates in wellness programs
Functional assessment scores over time (ADL measures, fall rates, weight stability)
Resident satisfaction metrics tied to specific programs

If your CRM or EHR does not support this tracking today, that is a gap to address before applying.

Step 3: Identify Partners

MAHA ELEVATE applications are stronger with partnerships. Consider:

Health systems that want to reduce Medicare spending for their attributed beneficiaries
Primary care groups looking for value-based care delivery partners
Academic institutions that can provide evaluation and research support
Technology vendors that can help with population health analytics

LeadingAge and Argentum have both published guidance on forming value-based care partnerships. The key is finding partners who have Medicare data and can help demonstrate cost savings.

Step 4: Align Your Marketing

Families increasingly evaluate communities based on health outcomes, not just amenities. A community that can say “our residents have 40% fewer hospitalizations than the national average” has a fundamentally different marketing message than one that says “we have a nice dining room.”

Value-based care positioning strengthens every marketing channel:

Website content that highlights measurable wellness outcomes
Tour conversations that focus on health outcomes rather than just features
Digital advertising that targets families searching for “senior living health programs” or “wellness-focused senior community”
AI search optimization that structures outcome data for citation by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews

This is where the connection between clinical programming and marketing KPI tracking becomes tangible. Communities that can tell a data-backed health outcomes story convert more tours into move-ins. Having an AI compliance checklist in place before applying strengthens both your application and your marketing positioning.

The Broader Value-Based Care Trend in Senior Living

MAHA ELEVATE is part of a larger shift. The senior living industry has operated primarily as a real estate and hospitality business. Value-based care models are pulling it toward healthcare delivery, not replacing the residential model but adding a layer that generates revenue and differentiates communities.

Several trends are accelerating this shift:

CMS is expanding its definition of “healthcare delivery.” MAHA ELEVATE explicitly includes lifestyle interventions, not just clinical services. This signals that CMS views social determinants of health (nutrition, social connection, physical activity) as reimbursable healthcare delivery.

Payers want upstream prevention. Medicare spends disproportionately on acute care and hospitalizations. Any model that demonstrably reduces those costs attracts payer interest. Senior living communities that keep residents healthy and out of hospitals are delivering exactly what Medicare Advantage plans and ACOs need.

Families are making value-based decisions. Research from NIC and Argentum consistently shows that adult children evaluating senior living communities increasingly ask about health outcomes, staff-to-resident ratios, and wellness programming. Value-based care gives communities a framework to answer those questions with data rather than marketing language.

What This Means for Your Marketing Right Now

You do not need to wait for a MAHA ELEVATE application decision to market value-based care capabilities. The positioning advantages are immediate:

Update your community pages. Add specific, measurable health outcome data. If you know your fall rate, your resident satisfaction scores, or your hospitalization rates, publish them. This data is exactly what AI search engines cite when families ask “what is the best senior living community near me.”

Create content around wellness outcomes. Blog posts, family guides, and FAQ pages that address “how senior living communities improve health outcomes” or “wellness programs in assisted living” target keywords with growing search volume and almost no competition from other communities.

Train your sales team on value-based messaging. When a family tours your community, the conversation should include specific outcome data, not just amenity descriptions. “Our memory care residents participate in cognitive stimulation programming five days a week, and families report measurable improvement in engagement” is a different conversation than “we have activities.”

Ensure your marketing platform tracks the right data. If you are using AI-powered lead scoring and CRM systems, make sure your marketing analytics connect to operational outcomes. The communities that can demonstrate a clear path from marketing spend to move-in to resident health outcomes will have the strongest value-based care applications and the most compelling family marketing.

I want to see how USR Engage markets value-based care capabilities

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CMS MAHA ELEVATE?

MAHA ELEVATE is a $100 million CMS Innovation Center model that funds 3-year cooperative agreements for organizations delivering whole-person, evidence-based lifestyle interventions to Original Medicare beneficiaries. It focuses on nutrition, physical activity, social connections, stress management, substance avoidance, and sleep. The first cohort launches October 2026.

Are senior living communities eligible for MAHA ELEVATE?

Yes. CMS has explicitly listed senior housing among eligible participants. Independent living, assisted living, and continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) that provide wellness programming aligned with the model’s six focus areas are eligible to apply, either independently or in partnership with healthcare organizations.

What was the MAHA ELEVATE Letter of Intent deadline?

The mandatory LOI deadline was April 10, 2026. Full applications are due May 15, 2026. A second cohort will open applications in 2027, so communities that missed the first round still have an opportunity to apply.

How much funding is available per community?

CMS is distributing approximately $100 million across up to 30 proposals in two cohorts. Individual award amounts will vary based on proposal scope and the number of Medicare beneficiaries served. Communities partnering with health systems or serving larger Medicare populations may receive larger awards.

How does value-based care affect senior living marketing?

Value-based care positioning gives communities measurable outcomes to communicate to families. Instead of marketing amenities, communities can market health results, including lower hospitalization rates, improved functional status, and higher family satisfaction scores. This data-driven approach strengthens website content, tour conversations, and AI search visibility.

Do I need to wait for MAHA ELEVATE to market value-based care?

No. The positioning advantages of value-based care marketing are immediate. Communities can start tracking wellness outcomes, publishing health data on their websites, and training sales teams on outcome-based messaging today. MAHA ELEVATE funding amplifies this positioning but is not required to begin.

What is the connection between MAHA ELEVATE and the NIC occupancy projections?

NIC MAP projects occupancy above 90% by end of 2026. In a market where most communities are near full, the differentiator shifts from filling beds to demonstrating value. MAHA ELEVATE aligns with this shift by rewarding communities that can prove they deliver measurable health outcomes, giving them both a revenue stream and a competitive marketing advantage.

Talk to us about marketing your value-based care capabilities at SLEC 2026