September is when the year-end math becomes real. With roughly sixteen weeks left before December 31, every value-based organization faces the same arithmetic: a list of members without an annual wellness visit, a list of open quality gaps, a list of chronic conditions not yet documented this year, and a finite number of clinician hours to address them. The organizations that finish strong are not the ones that work hardest in December. They are the ones that sort the lists in September and build a plan that converts outreach into completed, well-documented visits.

Why 2026 Year-End Matters More

Three factors raise the stakes this year.

  • Risk adjustment runs fully on the 2024 CMS-HCC model (V28). The model has fewer payment HCCs and tighter definitions than its predecessor, so specific, supported documentation of each condition matters more than ever.
  • Documentation needs a real encounter. In the CY 2027 Rate Announcement, CMS finalized excluding diagnoses from unlinked chart review records (with an exception for members switching MA organizations) and from audio-only services identified by specific modifiers. Payment year 2027 risk scores draw on 2026 dates of service, so conditions should be assessed and documented in qualifying visits, with encounters submitted cleanly.
  • Quality measurement years close December 31. HEDIS gaps not closed by year-end generally stay open for measurement year 2026, which affects Star Ratings, quality bonuses and shared savings quality scores for years to come.

Step 1: Prioritize Ruthlessly

Not every member on the list has equal value or equal likelihood of completing a visit. Build a single prioritized worklist that combines all three programs, rather than separate lists for AWVs, quality and risk that compete for the same members' attention.

A practical scoring approach weighs four factors:

  1. Value of the visit: the number of open quality gaps plus the number of suspected or unrecaptured conditions. A member with three open gaps and two conditions to reassess is worth more than one with a single gap.
  2. Likelihood of completion: recent engagement, working phone numbers, and history of attending scheduled visits.
  3. Time sensitivity: gaps that require multiple steps (a referral, then a result) need to start now, while single-visit gaps can wait until November.
  4. Clinical need: members with uncontrolled conditions or recent admissions should rise regardless of financial value.

Members who score high on value but low on likelihood are candidates for home visits. Members who score high on both should be scheduled first.

Step 2: Convert Outreach Into Visits

Most year-end programs lose the majority of their potential at one step: getting from a phone call to a completed visit. Common failure points include outreach staff who cannot see clinician schedules, calls made at the wrong time of day, no follow-up when a member says "call me later," and appointments booked weeks out that are forgotten.

Better conversion comes from operational basics done consistently:

  • Give outreach staff live access to schedules so they can book during the call.
  • Use connected telephony so every attempt and outcome is logged against the member record.
  • Schedule visits close to the call date to reduce no-shows, and confirm them a day or two before.
  • Offer the visit format that works for the member: clinic, home or, where appropriate, video.
  • Track conversion by outreach staff, by script and by practice weekly, and adjust.

At one national provider group working with Curitics, outreach-to-visit conversion rose from 20% to 50%, and annual wellness visit completion rose from 45% to 72%. Improvements of that size change what is possible in the final quarter.

Step 3: Use Home Visits Strategically

Home visits reach members who will not or cannot come to the clinic, often the frailest and most complex members, who also carry the most chronic conditions and open gaps. They are also expensive, so routing matters.

  • Cluster home visits geographically and plan routes to minimize drive time.
  • Coordinate multi-party visits where a clinician and a care manager or social worker attend together.
  • Equip home clinicians to close gaps in the visit: blood pressure, A1c point-of-care testing where appropriate, depression and fall risk screening, and medication review.
  • Make sure home visit documentation meets the same standard as clinic documentation, with a qualifying face-to-face encounter.

Step 4: Make Every Visit Count

A completed visit is only valuable if it produces complete, accurate documentation and closes the gaps it was meant to close. Three practices make the difference:

  1. Prepare before the visit. Prospective review identifies conditions documented in prior years that need reassessment, and suspected conditions supported by labs, medications or specialist notes. Clinicians should see these before they walk in.
  2. Close gaps during the visit. Structured fields for vitals, screenings and results, captured in the visit, mean gaps close without a separate chart chase.
  3. Review before sign-off. A documentation check before the note is signed catches conditions that are mentioned but not supported, and conditions that are supported but not coded. Correcting a note before submission is far easier than correcting it after.

The same national provider group improved HCC recapture from 60% to 85%. Recapture at that level depends on preparation and documentation discipline, not on visit volume alone.

A September to December Timeline

  • September: Build the combined worklist, set weekly targets by practice, and start multi-step gaps (referrals, screenings requiring results).
  • October: Peak outreach. Fill clinic and home visit schedules for October and November. Review conversion weekly.
  • November: Focus on single-visit closures and recapture. Add capacity where schedules allow. Chase outstanding results.
  • December: Final outreach to high-value members, documentation review of every remaining encounter, and verification that encounters and supplemental data are submitted.

Supporting the Year-End Push

Year-end performance depends on connecting work that usually lives in separate tools. Curitics brings prioritized gap and recapture lists, connected telephony, multi-party and home-visit scheduling with drive times and route planning, and an Encounter Builder that captures vitals with ICD-10 suggestions, validated screenings and in-visit gap closure, followed by AI documentation review before sign-off. Scheduling and encounter performance reports show leaders where conversion is slipping while there is still time to fix it.

December 31 is a hard deadline. Organizations that treat September as the start of the year-end push, not October or November, give themselves the time to do it right.