Neurosurgery Joins Physician Groups in Support of the Efficiency Adjustment Delay Act

• The Honorable Ron Estes
  United States House of Representatives
  2234 Rayburn House Office Building
  Washington, DC 20515
• The Honorable Thomas Suozzi
  United States House of Representatives
  203 Cannon House Office Building
  Washington, DC 20515

Dear Congressmen Estes and Suozzi,

On behalf of the thirty-eight undersigned organizations, we would like to express our strong support for the Efficiency Adjustment Delay Act. This legislation is critical in ensuring patient access to medical care by delaying the flawed “efficiency adjustment” finalized in the Calendar Year 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule until 2030. This “efficiency adjustment” in the form of an across-the-board 2.5% reduction to work Relative Value Units (RVUs) will cause further decreases in reimbursement for physician services and have wide-ranging consequences, including significant financial pressures that could limit patient access to necessary medical services, particularly for the most vulnerable populations.

This “efficiency adjustment” applies to all non-time-based codes in 2026 with additional reductions every three years indefinitely and is intended to address an incorrect assumption that non-time-based services become more eƯicient 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 eleven 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

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