Company expands support for CMS' ACCESS Model and the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge, helping healthcare organizations operationalize technology-enabled, longitudinal care at scale
AUSTIN, Texas, July 15, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Wheel, the leading clinical infrastructure company powering virtual care, today launched expanded capabilities to enable healthcare organizations seeking to participate in Medicare's evolving programs, including support for CMS's ACCESS Model and immediate operational readiness for the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge.
The announcement comes as CMS accelerates its shift toward technology-enabled, outcomes-based chronic disease care. Through models like ACCESS and the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge, CMS is incentivizing healthcare organizations to expand access, improve outcomes, and deliver more coordinated care for Medicare beneficiaries across cardiometabolic and other chronic conditions.
Activating these new models is operationally complex, and success requires far more than standing up digital tools or care coordination workflows. Organizations must coordinate care across distributed provider networks, comply with shifting medication access requirements, and deliver programs efficiently enough to make them financially sustainable.
Wheel's AI-first technology ingests and normalizes patient health context, routes patients to appropriately licensed clinicians, manages state-by-state compliance, sequences pharmacy and prior authorization workflows, retrieves historical clinical documentation, and supports patients longitudinally without adding unsustainable operational burden.
The company's virtual care platform, Wheel Horizon™, enables healthcare organizations to launch complex cardiometabolic care pathways without building clinical operations from scratch, including the operational workflows required to support eligibility, pharmacy coordination, prior authorization, and payment adjudication. The same infrastructure that supports ACCESS participation also powers the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge today and is designed to scale as Medicare continues expanding technology-enabled care.
Wheel Clinic, available directly to consumers through Walmart's Better Care Services platform, will launch expanded Medicare capabilities on July 15, including support for eligible Medicare beneficiaries seeking access to weight management treatment through the GLP-1 Bridge program. Additional Wheel partners are also launching Medicare programs with Wheel's infrastructure in the coming weeks.
"Our customers aren't investing in infrastructure for a single Medicare initiative," said Michelle Davey, Chief Executive Officer of Wheel. "They're investing in the capabilities they'll need for today's cardiometabolic care and for where healthcare is going next. Clinical infrastructure that combines tech, data, and care delivery is just not optional anymore for sustainable success at scale. Complexity is what Wheel was built for, and we're proud to help our partners expand access for populations that have historically been left out of healthcare innovation."
While ACCESS reflects Medicare's broader direction, Medicare GLP-1 Bridge represents an immediate opportunity for healthcare organizations to serve a historically underserved patient population through a new pathway for weight loss management programming. Wheel's infrastructure enables partners to move efficiently, helping them operationalize one of Medicare's most promising new care models.
Wheel brings proven experience supporting branded GLP-1 care at scale, a meaningful differentiator in a market where many virtual weight management programs have relied heavily on compounded medications. In the first half of 2026, Wheel serviced 300K branded GLP-1 encounters, with more than 50,000 for adults aged 60 and older.
As healthcare organizations evaluate ACCESS, the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge, and future CMS initiatives, success will depend on their ability to operationalize clinically complex care efficiently, sustainably, and at scale. That's the challenge Wheel was built to solve.
For more information, visit our Cardiometabolic Hub.
About Wheel
Wheel is the clinical infrastructure company powering virtual care for leading digital health companies, retailers, payers, and life sciences organizations. Through Wheel Horizon™, Wheel enables partners to deliver technology-enabled, longitudinal cardiometabolic care through nationwide provider access, intelligent care orchestration, medication management, and the AI-first operational infrastructure required to launch and scale complex clinical programs.
Media Contact
Tanya Mahr, Wheel, 1 610-420-1724, [email protected], wheel.com
SOURCE Wheel
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