USofCare Responds to CMS’s 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule

Washington, DC — Last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule. In our response to the proposed rule earlier this year, United States of Care urged CMS to finalize key policies that will help improve access to primary care, promote care coordination, and address a key source of waste and fraud in Medicare – including policies to more accurately value primary care and improve the integration of behavioral health care, establish the Ambulatory Specialty Model to better manage chronic conditions through more coordinated care across providers, and payment changes to reduce incentives for inappropriate and overutilization of skin substitute products.

“We applaud CMS for including several key provisions in the 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule that will help orient the Medicare physician payment system towards addressing people’s health care needs through more person-centered care delivery,” said United States of Care Senior Director of Federal Policy & Advocacy Lisa Hunter. “We know from our listening research that people desire a health care system in which they can spend more time with their providers, receive care that is coordinated between their providers, and are treated as a whole person rather than a series of symptoms. They just want to be healthy, and they want understandable health care that shows up for them when they need it. These changes will help move Medicare towards more personalized, whole-person care.”

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