ASE Joins Coalition Requesting a Fix for the Efficiency Adjustment to be Added to Physician Payment Reform

On June 15, ASE joined twenty undersigned organizations in a letter to Representatives John Joyce, MD, Greg Murphy, MD, and Kim Schrier, MD, regarding the draft Medicare physician payment legislative package. The letter thanks the lawmakers for addressing longstanding issues in the Medicare physician payment system and supports several provisions in the draft, including lifting the budget neutrality threshold, implementing an inflationary update, and reducing administrative burdens in the MIPS program. However, it urges Congress to add two key missing policies: language stopping the 2.5% conversion factor cut scheduled for January 1, 2027, and a fix for the across-the-board “efficiency adjustment” cuts that reduced work RVUs by 2.5% on January 1, 2026, and are expected to continue on an indefinite three-year cycle.

ASE strongly supports these efforts as unstable Medicare reimbursement directly threatens echocardiography practices’ ability to maintain the advanced equipment, specialized staff, and quality standards necessary to provide essential cardiac imaging services to Medicare beneficiaries. The efficiency adjustment is particularly concerning for cardiovascular imaging, as it rests on a flawed assumption of uniformly gained efficiencies that does not reflect the realities of performing and interpreting echocardiograms, especially in rural and underserved communities where practices operate on thin margins.