ASE Joins Letter Supporting Congress in Delaying Harmful Medicare Efficiency Adjustment

Effective January 1, 2026, the CY 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule included a 2.5% reduction, or efficiency adjustment, to work Relative Value Units (RVUs) for all non-time-based services. CMS justified the cut on the assumption that services automatically become more efficient over time as they grow more common and technology improves. This contradicts a peer-reviewed study showing that 90% of CPT codes had the same or longer operative times in 2023 compared to 2019. The policy compounds the problem by applying additional reductions every three years indefinitely, creating long-term financial uncertainty that extends well beyond Medicare reimbursement.  

In response, on February 12, Congressmen Ron Estes and Thomas Suozzi introduced the Efficiency Adjustment Delay Act (H.R. 7520), which would postpone the reduction until 2030 and require CMS to produce empirical evidence supporting any across-the-board cut before it can be implemented. The legislation would also limit any future reduction to a one-time change for codes that have not been reviewed or revalued within the prior ten years.  

Simultaneous to the legislation being released, ASE joined 37 other medical organizations in a letter to Congressmen Estes and Suozzi expressing strong support for the legislation. For echocardiographers, the stakes are significant as echo services (TTE [93303–93308], TEE [93312–93318], stress [93350–93352], and interventional [93355]) are all non-time-based codes directly subject to the 2.5% work RVU cut, placing downward pressure on reimbursement for essential cardiac imaging services and threatening access to patients. 

Take Action! 

ASE members can make a difference by contacting their representatives in Congress today. Call your Senator or Representative through the U.S. Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121, or visit Congress.gov to find your members and send a message urging them to support and cosponsor H.R. 7520.  

When you call or write, share how these cuts affect your ability to deliver timely, high-quality cardiac imaging and the patients who depend on it. ASE has developed a full advocacy toolkit with background information, a phone script, email template, and sample social media posts to make it easy to take action. Visit ASE’s Take Action page to get started.