ACN Advance - Provider Newsletter

As Arizona Care Network continually seeks to improve coordination of care for patients and reduce the average cost-of-care for inpatient and outpatient services, the physician-led Board of Managers approved updated participation requirements for physicians practicing in certain designated specialties, effective Jan. 1, 2026.

This updated guideline builds upon the specialist participation requirements originally adopted in 2023, and gradually expanded in 2024 and 2025 to ensure care is more affordable for our payer partners and patients accessing the network:

Effective Jan. 1, 2026: Physicians who treat patients at in-network facilities less than 75 percent of the time (with a minimum of 5 direct admissions at inpatient and outpatient facilities on a 12-month rolling basis) will no longer be eligible to participate with ACN.

Individual physicians who do not meet these new requirements will be removed from ACN’s primary care provider- and member- facing directories effective the first day of an upcoming quarter.

These physicians will also be removed from rosters ACN sends to its payer partners for removal from the network, effective 90 days later (270 days later for OB-GYN providers and 365 days later for Oncology providers) to ensure continuity of care for patients.

Each impacted specialist organization received a notification via traditional mail, and from its dedicated Clinical Performance Consultant informing them of the status change.

New Board-Monitored Specialties for INN Utilization

Additionally, the physician-led Board of Managers approved monitoring four (4) additional specialties for in-network utilization beginning in 2026.

This expansion brings 13 total specialties, in which providers are expected to maintain 75 percent INN utilization among its ACN-attributed patient population:

Organizations from the four newest monitored specialties in 2026 (Colorectal Surgery, Ophthalmology, Otolaryngology, and Pain Medicine) were notified of these network requirements via mail notifications and from their dedicated Clinical Performance Consultant during Q1 of 2026.

If you have any questions about these participation requirements, or wish to receive additional guidance and tools for your practice, please contact your Clinical Performance Consultant or email practicetransformation@azcarenetwork.org.

New ACN participation requirements involving Innovaccer and InNote computer software adoption within primary care and specialty provider organizations begin March 31.

ACN adopted and began implementing various tools available from Innovaccer throughout 2024 to improve attributed members’ care coordination and in-network utilization efforts between participating primary care and specialist providers. Additional dashboards have since been periodically introduced related to attribution, quality, and a PCP scorecard.

Transitioning to Innovaccer’s multi-dashboard program allows your practice easy access to actionable and downloadable data, metrics, and network utilization insights that further promote efficient, cost-effective patient care within the network. These programs work seamlessly within your existing Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system, and only impact ACN-attributed members.

Provider Rewards Program (PRP)

Participating primary care provider organizations maintain eligibility for the 2026 Provider Rewards Program (PRP) by meeting two quarterly requirements:

• • • Maintain at least one active InNote user within your organization.
      • • Begin the Provisioning process here.
    • Complete 20 InNote utilization activities, including:
      • • Quality gap closure
        • Member lookup; or
        • HCC coding information

Specialist TIN Utilization

InNote can make ACN member identification seamless within your existing EMR platform through:

• • • timely identification at the point of care and when scheduling patients,
    • only appearing on your screen when an ACN member is identified, and
    • easy-to-use lookup function to search for a specific member directly.

Resources

• • • InNote provisioning process
    • 2026 InNote Provider Rewards Program Flyer
    • New guidelines notifications:  Print | Email

Questions?

Contact your Clinical Performance Consultant or email practicetransformation@azcarenetwork.org to begin the provisioning process or with any feedback.

Arizona Care Network’s new Care Scorecard is now available for Mercy Care and Intel Connected Care members online, and Apple iOS and Google Play app stores.

Expansion to additional payer populations is expected in 2026 and 2027.

The Care Scorecard is a new patient-facing digital tool designed to improve quality measure awareness, streamline care coordination, and support practices in closing care gaps.

Initially introduced in 2025, the Care Scorecard provides members a way to keep track of open and completed Quality measures, while reinforcing the role of their assigned provider(s) in guiding both preventive and chronic care.

The Care Scorecard enhances a member’s own care journey experience, supports your patient care plan, helps close Quality care gaps, and potentially reduces administrative/scheduling burdens on your practice through:

• • • Improved Member Awareness: Members can clearly see which preventive and quality measures apply to them, reducing confusion and unnecessary inbound calls to practices.
    • Aligned Care Navigation: Each member is linked to his/her assigned provider and practice, reinforcing continuity of care and encouraging appropriate follow-up and promoting care referrals within the network.
    • Actionable Quality Focus: Measures are explained in plain language and include available online Resources for additional reading — helping members understand why screenings and visits matter.
    • Support for Value-Based Performance: The tool supports quality outcomes tied to shared savings and pay-for-performance incentives, and risk-based contracts.

Care Scorecard Support

The Care Scorecard includes a concierge support feature, allowing members to request ACN’s assistance with scheduling appointments or navigating care step(s).

Support and scheduling requests are coordinated to ensure alignment with the member provider’s availability and practice workflows to help close care gaps without disrupting your office operations.

Please contact your CPC or email practicetransformation@azcarenetwork.org with any questions or feedback.

As part of Arizona Care Network’s Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) participation, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requires beneficiaries attributed to participating primary care practices are notified that his/her primary care provider participates with ACN as part of the MSSP Enhanced program.

A verbal or written follow-up communication (written, email, verbal, telephonic) is required no later than the next visit following the initial beneficiary notification or, if no subsequent visit, within 180 days from the initial beneficiary notification:

This communication in English and Spanish gives beneficiaries an opportunity to ask questions about MSSP Enhanced and its benefits.

ACN can provide materials to your staff to help answer beneficiary questions that are shared with your Medicare beneficiaries during his/her second visit or pushed through your patient portal (Note: If your organization participated in the MSSP Enhanced program with ACN in 2025, the 2026 notifications are identical).

ACN will send a subsequent reminder notification to beneficiaries in June (via traditional mail).

Please contact your Clinical Performance Consultant or email practicetransformation@azcarenetwork.org with any questions or feedback.

Primary Care Providers: If your patients require an urgent care visit, NextCare Urgent Care locations can now submit your patient’s NextCare visit information, including any treatment plan or test results to your practice via secure email or e-fax.

Upon arriving at a NextCare location, your patient simply documents his/her primary care provider and organization on the pre-screening form, and NextCare can submit all relevant information and documentation from its portal to your organization’s EMR platform.

More than 1,500 PCPs around the Valley have been successfully loaded into NextCare platform, and rollout to additional PCP providers/organizations will continue in 2026.

NextCare Urgent Care a Tier 1 INN Provider

Several of NextCare’s 55 urgent care locations across Arizona are open on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day
Note: Patients should refer to NextCare’s website (links below) to confirm each location’s hours).

NextCare is a Tier 1 in-network service for patients covered under ACN’s various value-based and narrow/exclusive network arrangements.

NextCare is also contracted with a wide range of additional payers to support your broader patient population.

In addition to injury and illness diagnoses capabilities, NextCare services include:

• • • Online appointment scheduling
    • Virtual and telehealth care availability
    • Extended hours (many locations are open until 8 p.m. and on weekends)
    • Immunizations and vaccines (COVID, flu, hepatitis, tetanus, and more)
    • Physicals (sports, employment, school)
    • Prescribing certain medications
    • Pediatric care
    • X-rays
    • Lab and blood services
    • STD testing
    • Antibody testing (strep throat, Valley Fever, and more)

Your patients can easily find a convenient urgent care location and specific location information through ACN’s Find-a-Facility search engine, or the NextCare location finder.

If your practice’s attributed Alignment Health members (Medicare Advantage) are living with multiple chronic or complex conditions, AHP’s Care Anywhere program may provide additional lower-cost care options and support.

“Care Anywhere” brochure: English | Spanish

The program, which began in 2017, is spearheaded by Dr. Michael Kedansky (MD), Alignment Health’s chief medical officer in Arizona. It aims to help reduce costly hospital and emergency readmissions through in-person care management outreach and extended visit appointments with impacted patients.

Staffed by Alignment’s own dedicated care team, the program identifies members based on his/her health status and social needs, and then to support the care team in delivering personalized, timely and coordinated care wherever members need it – at the senior’s home, in a health care facility or virtually.

If you have any questions or would like additional support with a high-risk Alignment Health patient, call (833) 413-9745 or email careanywherecoordination@ahcusa.com.

UnitedHealthcare Community & State (Medicaid) members now have 24/7/365 access to a primary care physician when not able to access their own PCP.

The “Doctor Chat” program provides:

• • • An on-demand virtual care option for our members that is available 24/7/365 at no cost to members.
    • Members with a physician connection in under 1 minute to address a member’s concern through the ‘Doctor Chat’ app.
    • Lab referrals, prescribe medications (non-controlled) and review labs with a provider.
    • Real-time Spanish translation and other language translations via multilingual physicians and translation tools. It also features services that care for those who are vision and hearing impaired.

Learn more about the ‘Doctor Chat’ program and available Member app.

• • • Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube for additional news, health-related content for providers and patients, organizational updates, and more.
    • Read previous ACN Advance quarterly provider newsletters anytime.
    • Learn more about ACN’s Care Coordination program and services designed to partner and support your practice in achieving healthy, cost-effective patient outcomes in this video.
    • 2026 Q2 Quality member text message outreach campaigns: A1C, Breast Cancer Screening, Cervical Cancer Screening, Colorectal Cancer Screening, Diabetes, Well Child Visits (WCV)
    • To help your practice stay connected with important news, new initiatives, and other updates throughout the year, ACN is requesting your provider(s) email addresses to improve ACN’s outreach efforts. Simply click on the Provider Update Form to add or update your provider(s) contact information. (Email address information shared with Arizona Care Network is never shared with any outside organization and not used to market or solicit any product. This is strictly for informational purposes, directly from ACN).
    • A wealth of updated documents and resources will be available from your dedicated Clinical Performance Consultant or practicetransformation@azcarenetwork.org during Q1 2026, including:
      • • • Specialist Neighborhood Maps/Listings
          • Improved Quality Measure Tip Sheets and Toolkits
          • Payer ID Cards quick reference document
          • Intel Connected Care TPA quick reference document
    • Aetna offers monthly Risk Adjustment Education webinars for providers and administrators. Each webinar explores an overview of risk adjustment and how it impacts you; tips to improve documentation and coding; the importance of medical record submissions; and tips to stay compliant with regulatory requirements. A complete list of topics and registration links are available through April, as well as May-December.
    • Both Abrazo Arrowhead and Abrazo West campuses both feature “The Nest,” designed to support women, babies, and families through every stage of pregnancy, birth, and postpartum care. “The Nest” includes:
      • • • Spacious custom private labor and delivery suites
          • Advanced wireless fetal monitoring
          • AquaDoula water birthing options available at Abrazo West
          • Breastfeeding education and lactation consultations
          • Dedicated 24/7 OB hospitalist coverage
          • Dedicated 24/7 Neonatal Coverage
          • Sleep accommodation for family & other supporters.
    • Abrazo West campus features a new inpatient rehabilitation facility with advanced therapy technologies designed to help patients recover mobility, strength, cognitive function following stroke, neurological injury, orthopedic surgery, and other complex medical conditions. New rehabilitation technologies Include:
      • • • Functional electrical stimulation devices designed to improve daily tasks and increase independence.
          • Overhead gait training system with dynamic body-weight support, fall protection and improve endurance.
          • Body-weight support device used with treadmill for walking therapy after stroke, injury, or surgery.
    • Dignity Health is hosting a thoracic and pulmonology robotic showcase April 20 anytime between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. at Mercy Gilbert Medical Center in Gilbert (look for the semi-truck on the outdoor lot near the corner of Val Vista Dr. and Mercy Rd.). Topics include lung nodule diagnosis, evaluation and biopsy, collaboration with local referring providers, and more. Light refreshments and resources for your patients and practice are included, and more information is available here.
    • Phoenix Children’s 15th Annual Fetal Cardiology Symposium will take place Nov. 5-8 at the Sheraton at Wild Horse Pass in Chandler. The conference features expert-led lectures, panel discussions, and hands-on learning across fetal cardiology, maternal fetal medicine (MFM), sonography, radiology, and more. CME credits are available and more information is available here.
    • Phoenix Children’s formed a new alignment between Phoenix Children’s Pediatrics (PCP), the health system’s statewide network of primary care offices, and Phoenix Children’s Medical Group (PCMG), its employed primary and specialty care physicians. Phoenix Children’s Pediatrics is comprised of more than 50 pediatricians and advanced practice providers who provide preventive and medical care at 12 clinic locations in Arizona. Phoenix Children’s Medical Group includes more than 900 employed medical staff delivering specialty services, including ophthalmology, cardiology, otolaryngology, urology and surgery.

• • • Affinity Family Medicine
    • Arizona Neurology Associates
    • Canyon Family Medicine
    • Embark Behavioral Health
    • Iya Medical
    • Maryvale Family Practice
    • Paradigm Psychiatry
    • Providence General Medicine
    • A. Clark Ruttinger, DO
    • Valley Wellness Center
    • Vitiello Primary Care

You can also view a list of practices no longer participating with ACN.