January 2026 advocacy rounds

David Tully: As we enter the new year, the AAFP is ramping up its advocacy efforts. It's time to recap the big and little ways the AAFP advocated in January for policies that impact you, your patients and your community.

Welcome to Fighting for Family Medicine. I'm David Tully, vice president of Government Relations and a member of the AAFP's Advocacy Team. I'm going to recap the ways the AAFP advocated for family medicine during the month of January. The AAFP urged Congress to make healthcare more accessible and affordable to all Americans.

In our letter for a hearing with health insurance CEOs, the AAFP outlined practices that harm patient care, including practice acquisitions to maximize profits, downcoding payments for office visits, lower physician payments, inadequate investment in primary care utilization, management that delays care and Medicare Advantage coding practices that fragment care.You can read our full letter in our show notes.

Thanks to sustained advocacy from the AAFP, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has awarded 32 new family medicine residency positions across 18 training programs. This is a meaningful step forward. Expanding family medicine training is essential to address ongoing physician shortages, especially in rural and underserved communities, and improve access to comprehensive community-based care.

The AAFP continues to push residency slots that are dedicated specifically to family medicine, because we know that training more family physicians is one of the most effective ways to strengthen the healthcare system overall.

The AAFP welcomed the US Drug Enforcement Administration's recent one-year extension of telehealth flexibilities for prescribing controlled substances. This extension helps protect patient access to care, particularly for patients in rural and underserved areas. It also gives practices some much needed stability.

As permanent policies are developed, the AAFP is continuing to work with the DEA to advocate for long-term telehealth policies that support safe prescribing and prioritize established patient-physician relationships, something that family physicians know is key to high-quality care.

On January 5, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reduced the number of vaccines it recommends for children, without any new evidence or data supporting the change or input from family physicians. The AAFP has reasserted a clear message: Vaccines remain our best defense against preventable disease.

The AAFP has joined hundreds of health care organizations in urging Congress to conduct oversight and investigate the change to the childhood vaccine schedule. We've also joined hundreds of health care organizations in writing to HHS and the CDC to reaffirm our commitment to a transparent, evidence-based immunization policy process that protects the health of US children.

At a time when misinformation continues to circulate, family physicians remain trusted voices. AAFP President Sarah Nosal recently spoke with NBC News about the latest flu surge and the importance of getting vaccinated, reinforcing what you talk about with patients every day. You can find a link to the AAFP's immunization schedules in the show notes.

The US Department of Homeland Security has proposed rolling back the 2022 public charge rule. If finalized, this change could once again allow immigration officials to consider a broader range of public benefits, including Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program and SNAP, when making immigration decisions.

This would create uncertainty for immigrant families and can discourage people from seeking needed health care, ultimately harming the public health. In response, the AAFP submitted a comment letter and joined other health organizations in a separate letter to DHS warning that limiting access to care and increasing instability in the immigration system places strains on medical practices and negatively affects the physician workforce.

The letters, which you can read in the show notes, urge DHS not to move forward with the proposal and instead support policies that expand access to affordable, high-quality care for all patients.

Congress is kick-starting 2026 with a renewed interest in modernizing Medicare physician payment. In recent advocacy tied to a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing, the AAFP called for modernizing the Medicare physician fee schedule by fixing budget neutrality, investing more in primary care and adding an annual inflation index update. The AAFP also pushed to waive Medicare Part B cost sharing for primary care services, expand value-based payment models that give practices more flexibility and resources and ensure that Part B covers all recommended vaccines so patients can get immunizations from their family physician.

Additionally, the AAFP urged Congress to reform MACRA by boosting Medicare investment in primary care and giving the CMS Innovation Center more flexibility to support continuous, coordinated care. You can read our letter in the show notes.

Before we wrap up our time today, I want to share one last piece of exciting news. Registration for the Family Medicine Advocacy Summit is now open. The conference will take place from June 14 to 16 in Washington, DC, where you can bring your insight to help shape policy no matter where you are in your family medicine career.

At FMAS, you'll have the opportunity to build powerful advocacy skills through dynamic, hands-on sessions. Get up-to-the-minute insights from policy experts on key legislation, meet directly with your congressional offices and share your personal story with leaders. Who can make a difference? You can. Register today and get early-bird pricing at the link in the show notes.

Step forward, speak out and help us shape the future of family medicine.

Thanks for joining us today. You can find out what the AAFP is doing to advocate for you, your patients and your practices and how you can get involved by visiting our website at https://www.aafp.org/advocacy. Check out the show notes for more links to items that discuss today.

If you enjoyed today's episode, let us know by dropping a line to AAFPnews@aafp.org. Be sure to share the episode with your followers on social media and tag the AAFP. We will talk to you soon.