WASHINGTON, DC — The American College of Surgeons (ACS) and 33 medical organizations asked the United States Congress Monday to step in and stop a portion of a payment rule recently finalized by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that implements a 2.5 reduction in payments in 2026, with additional reductions likely every 3 years indefinitely.
This “efficiency adjustment” will cause further decreases in reimbursement for physician services and have wide-ranging consequences, including significant financial pressures that could limit patient access to medical care, particularly for the most vulnerable populations.
“We need Congress to step in immediately and stop the implementation of this flawed plan that will negatively impact surgeons and will limit access to care for millions of vulnerable patients,” said Patricia L. Turner, MD, MBA, FACS, ACS Executive Director & CEO. “CMS developed a flawed calculation that is not rooted in any real analysis of data and does not contemplate the negative impact on our patients.”
In a letter to congressional leaders, the ACS and 33 medical organizations asked that Congress act before January 1, 2026, to preempt this ill-advised and unwarranted change in the payment structure from taking effect.
The CMS “efficiency adjustment” rule is based on the incorrect assumption that non-time-based services become more efficient as the services become “more common, professionals gain more experience, technology is improved, and other operational improvements are implemented.” Directly contradicting this CMS claim, a recent peer reviewed study published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons analyzing more than 1.7 million operations, spanning 249 Current Procedural Codes (CPT) and 11 surgical specialties, found that 90 percent of CPT codes had the same or longer operative times in 2023 compared to 2019. In fact, operative times have increased overall by 3.1 percent.
“At a time when too many patients are seeing access to essential medical care delayed, we cannot allow another reduction in the structure of physician payments to drive even more physicians out of medical practice,” Dr. Turner said. “We must stabilize payments to enable surgeons and physicians to keep their practices open so that they can continue to serve their patients.”
