On October 31, 2026, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the CY 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) Final Rule. In this rule, the agency finalized a policy that reduces practice expense RVUs for facility-based services. The result is an almost 5% reduction in Medicare reimbursement for Hospitalist Medicine services. 

CMS explains their reasoning for this policy change: an incorrect assumption that the administrative expenses for facility-based services are reimbursed directly to the facility, making physician and clinician reimbursement for these expenses duplicative. However, what this policy does not account for is the large number of independent, facility-based providers that practice in a facility but are not employed by the hospital, and the administrative expenses that those physicians and clinicians bear.

Urge your member of Congress to press CMS to delay the implementation of this policy. Your story, as independent facility-based Hospitalist Medicine physicians and clinicians, is critical to educating members of Congress and the Administration on the unintended consequences of this policy. Please take a minute to urge your members of Congress to ask CMS to delay implementation of this policy, taking the time to identify a solution that protects the viability of facility-based, independent medicine.