Hundreds of physicians in their white coats rallied in force in the oldest congressional office building in the nation’s capital to show their support for the elected leaders who are advancing bipartisan legislation that would stop the 2.83% cut in Medicare payments to physician practices this year while providing a 2% payment update.

The AMA is leading the charge to reform the Medicare payment system and strongly supports the measure—H.R. 879, the Medicare Patient Access and Practice Stabilization Act. This legislation would, effective April 1, prospectively cancel the physician payment cut that took effect Jan. 1. The measure has already gathered 63 bipartisan co-sponsors.

My latest for the AMA. The whole shebang.

Congress wrapped up its business in 2024 by failing to stop a fifth consecutive year of physician pay cuts that are threatening access to high-quality care, but Medicare Advantage (MA) plans learned from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that they are in line to get an average pay boost of 4.33% from 2025 to 2026.

Physicians, by contrast, are seeing 2.8% across-the-board cuts due to a broken and unsustainable Medicare payment system that especially affects patients with disabilities and those who live in rural areas. The congressional failure in late 2024 came despite AMA’s leading the charge to reform the Medicare payment system to avoid what AMA President Bruce A. Scott, MD, has called an “oncoming crisis” in medical care.

My latest for the AMA. The whole shebang.