ASE Joins Letter in Support of the Efficiency Adjustment Delay Act

On February 12, ASE joined 37 other medical organizations in submitting a letter to Congressmen Ron Estes and Thomas Suozzi in support of the Efficiency Adjustment Delay Act. The legislation instructs Congress to delay the 2.5% across-the-board reduction to work RVUs for all non-time-based services (finalized in the CY 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and effective January 1, 2026) until 2030, and to require CMS to produce empirical evidence justifying the cut before any future implementation. In the letter, the coalition argues the reduction is based on a flawed assumption that services become more efficient over time, contradicting a peer-reviewed study showing that 90% of CPT codes had the same or longer operative times in 2023 compared to 2019. The organizations also raise alarm that recurring RVU reductions will suppress physician compensation, introduce financial unpredictability for private and solo practices, and threaten patient access to care.

This legislation is directly relevant to echocardiography practices, as echo services (TTE [93303–93308], TEE [93312–93318], stress [93350–93352], and interventional [93355]) are non-time-based codes subject to the full 2.5% work RVU reduction. With recurring reductions applied every three years indefinitely, cumulative cuts pose a serious long-term threat to the financial sustainability of echocardiography practices and the ability of patients with cardiac conditions to access timely, high-quality imaging services. ASE strongly supports the Efficiency Adjustment Delay Act as a critical step toward ensuring Medicare reimbursement policies are evidence-based and that echocardiography remains appropriately valued within the physician fee schedule.