CMS Proposes First Medicare Pay Hike For Physicians In Five Years While Cracking Down On Skin Graft Overspending, Chronic Disease Care Gaps

After five straight years of Medicare reimbursement cuts, and thanks in part to the physician pay boost included in the GOP’s recently enacted reconciliation package, physicians would finally see a 3.8% pay increase under CMS’ proposed 2026 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) -- which also aims to rein in spending on skin substitute procedures, revamp how the agency calculates practice expenses for costly office equipment, and strengthen behavioral health and chronic disease care through new billing codes and a mandatory payment model.