Through the AHEAD model, Maryland envisions building a sustainable advanced primary care system that provides high-quality whole person care for all Marylanders and supports strong linkages across the healthcare continuum. Leveraging the success of MDPCP established under the Total Cost of Care Model, AHEAD aims to improve health outcomes for all people in Maryland, while simplifying the administrative burden for providers through all-payer alignment.

Maryland's AHEAD Primary Care Programs includes three main pathways: an infrastructure path, a Medicare path, and a Medicaid path. The Infrastructure path is for a small group of select ​practices that are building new or expanding advanced primary care in underserved areas of the state. The Medicare path includes two options, one for current MDPCP practices (Medicare Path 2/MDPCP) and an entry level option for practices that are not currently participating in MDPCP (Medicare Path 1/PC AHEAD). The Medicaid path is new and will preliminarily only be offered to current MDPCP practices. Practices that are not currently participating in MDPCP will be eligible for this path beginning January 2026.