Become a member and receive career-enhancing benefits
Our top priority is providing value to members. Your Member Services team is here to ensure you maximize your ACS member benefits, participate in College activities, and engage with your ACS colleagues. It's all here.
Become a member and receive career-enhancing benefits
Our top priority is providing value to members. Your Member Services team is here to ensure you maximize your ACS member benefits, participate in College activities, and engage with your ACS colleagues. It's all here.
In October, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized a rule reducing work Relative Value Units (wRVUs) and intra-service time for all non-time-based codes by 2.5% in 2026, with additional reductions every 3 years indefinitely. This extremely flawed policy assumes services become more efficient over time, and effectively in perpetuity—an assumption that is not supported by evidence.
The ACS continues to aggressively push back on this irrational decision by CMS and is leading a coalition of more than 30 national physician organizations to persuade Congress to take action before the end of the year.
As Congress is set to leave town for the year at the end of next week, we need your help! Congress needs to hear directly from you on the urgency of stopping implementation of this policy. It takes only a few minutes, and the more voices that are registered, the greater the chance that Congress will listen. If you have already acted, please encourage your colleagues to participate.
CMS’s determination for the wRVU cut is based on an assumption that surgery has become increasingly efficient and less costly in recent years—an assumption that goes against data. Watch Dr. Thomas Tsai, ACS Medical Director for Health Policy Research, and Dr. Christopher Childers discuss their published findings that contradict the CMS assumption.
On the Hill
Legislation Is Introduced to Tie Medicare Reimbursement to Inflation
Last week, Rep. Raul Ruiz, MD (D-CA), Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Rep. Kim Schrier, MD (D-WA), and Rep. Ami Bera, MD (D-CA), introduced critical legislation that would tie Medicare reimbursement to inflation with respect to the Medicare Economic Index. The Strengthening Medicare for Patients and Providers Act would be a key step in addressing long-term payment reform and provide a necessary update to the way surgeons are reimbursed under Medicare.
The ACS continues engaging lawmakers to support policies like this one and ensure surgeons are appropriately compensated.
ACS Leads Coalition in Support of E-Bike Safety Legislation
The ACS recently led a coalition letter in support of the Safety and Funding for E-Bikes (SAFE) Ride Act, legislation that will give states the resources they need to improve electronic bicycle (e-bike) safety.
E-bikes are an increasingly popular mode of transportation and recreation. However, their use is associated with a growing number of serious injuries, particularly among children and adolescents.
The ACS recognizes the need to address this emerging public safety problem through evidence-based policy and injury prevention strategies and has issued a Statement on Electric Bicycle Safety and Injury Prevention, which calls for the development and enforcement of policies at the local, state, and federal levels to ensure the safe use of e-bikes and prevent avoidable injuries.
The SAFE Ride Act, which aligns closely with the principles articulated by the ACS, would establish a grant program under the Department of Transportation providing funds to states that have an e-bike safety program, including successful enforcement of safety requirements and helmet laws, accident data collection, and support of local law enforcement in implementing safety efforts and conducting educational outreach to help reduce e-bike accidents and resulting injuries.
Visit SurgeonsVoice today to urge your representatives to support the SAFE Ride Act.
Outpatient/Ambulatory Surgery Final Rules Are Released
On November 21, CMS released the calendar year (CY) 2026 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System & Ambulatory Surgery Center Payment System (OPPS/ASC) final rule. In this rule, CMS increased OPPS payment rates for hospitals and ASCs that meet applicable quality reporting requirements by 2.6%.
Despite the ACS’s extensive comments opposing the proposal to eliminate the inpatient only (IPO) list, CMS announced it would be finalizing the removal of 285 mostly musculoskeletal-related procedures for CY 2026. The Agency also finalized the requirement that all remaining procedures must be phased out from the list by January 1, 2029, eliminating the list altogether.
Additionally, CMS finalized modifications to the Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting (OQR), Rural Emergency Hospital Quality Reporting, and ASC Quality Reporting (ASCQR) programs. The Agency finalized the removal of the Hospital Commitment to Health Equity, Facility Commitment to Health Equity, Screening for Social Drivers of Health (SDOH), and the Screen Positive Rate for SDOH measures from all three programs.
CMS also finalized the inclusion of the Patient Understanding of Key Information Related to Recovery After a Facility-Based Outpatient Procedure or Surgery, Patient Reported Outcome-Based Performance Measure (Information Transfer PRO–PM) to the Hospital OQR program but not the ASCQR program, citing concerns with implementation in the ambulatory setting.
2026 Advocacy Summit Will Help Surgeons Advocate for Change
In an often-volatile political environment for healthcare, it is more important than ever for surgeons to become advocates for their patients, their profession, and themselves.
By attending the Advocacy Summit portion of the 2026 ACS Leadership & Advocacy Summit, February 28–March 3 in Washington, DC, surgeons will be presented with impactful lessons and advice from knowledgeable political figures, along with the opportunity to visit Capitol Hill and meet to directly advocate for healthcare priorities.
Register today and then read a preview of the must-attend event in the January 2026 Bulletin article, which notes that attending the Advocacy Summit will “allow members to elevate their collective voice and effect meaningful change.”
State Affairs
ACS Has Active 2025, Tracking Impactful State-Level Legislation, Supporting Chapters
While legislative activity at the federal level is a common topic of discussion for healthcare professionals, many impactful policies and bills spring from individual state action—and the ACS is active at the state level, tracking approximately 1,500 state bills and supporting ACS Chapters so they can effectively advocate for positive change.
The November/December issue of the Bulletin includes a 2025 state legislative wrap-up feature, which summarizes ACS support for state chapter advocacy, as well as actions taken by state governments in areas including prior authorization, medical liability reform, noncompete/restrictive covenants, violence against healthcare professionals, scope of practice, and Stop the Bleed, cancer care, and more.
