- The Honorable John Thune
Majority Leader
U.S. Senate
Room S-230, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20510 - The Honorable Chuck Schumer
Minority Leader
U.S. Senate
Room S-221, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20510 - The Honorable Mike Johnson
Speaker
Room H-232, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515 - The Honorable Hakeem Jeffries
Minority Leader
Room H-204, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Leader Thune, Leader Schumer, Speaker Johnson, and Leader Jeffries,
The 34 undersigned organizations write to urge swift Congressional action to stop a portion of the recently finalized rule published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on October 31st (90 Fed. Reg. 32352 et seq.),that reduces the work Relative Value Units (RVUs) and intra-service time for all non-time-based codes by 2.5 percent in 2026, with additional reductions expected 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.
This “efficiency adjustment” is intended to address an 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”1. In direct contradiction to this claim, a recent peer reviewed study published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons (JACS) analyzing more than 1.7 million operations, spanning 249 CPT codes and 11 surgical specialties, found that 90 percent of CPT codes had the same or longer operative times in 2023 compared to 2019. Operative times have increased overall by 3.1 percent.2
Click here to view the full Physician Organizations Urge Congress to Halt CMS Efficiency Adjustment Rule
