Proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Takes Continued Steps to Bolster Primary Care

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 14, 2026

Media Contact: 
PR@aafp.org

Washington, D.C. – Medicare makes access to primary care possible for millions of older adults. Family physicians see firsthand how relationship-based, longitudinal care leads to better health outcomes at a more affordable cost by helping patients prevent and manage chronic conditions. The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) welcomes the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) proposed Medicare physician fee schedule, which includes important provisions that can strengthen primary care by reducing barriers for patients and improving payment for the high-value care family physicians deliver.

The AAFP is particularly encouraged that CMS is signaling better and continued support for primary care, and will:

Expand the primary care exception, which would give teaching physicians more flexibility to supervise care, improve timely access and support the future primary care workforce.
Continue to improve valuation of physician services by reexamining potentially misvalued codes and updating payment to better reflect today’s care and costs.
Expand payment for primary care-oriented services such as advance care planning and shared medical appointments.
Request information on redesigning primary care payment under the fee schedule to better support preventive, comprehensive care.

These changes are meaningful, but they do not address Medicare’s underlying physician payment problem.

While we appreciate that CMS’ work to improve valuation mitigates much of the reduction to the conversion factors, the AAFP is concerned that a 1.19% reduction to the Medicare qualifying APM conversion factor and a 1.68% reduction to the nonqualifying APM conversion factor will further destabilize physician practices and limit investment in primary care.

Medicare physician payments have declined 33% from 2001 to 2025 when adjusted for inflation, even as practice expenses have increased. Reforming Medicare payment is critical for serving all patients across the health care system, because Medicare payment policies influence Medicaid, Tricare and commercial insurance.

That is why Congress needs to implement permanent Medicare payment reform to ensure physician payments keep pace with the rising cost of delivering care. Without a reliable annual inflationary update tied to the Medicare Economic Index, primary care practices will continue to face financial pressures that further strain the primary care workforce and threaten patient access to care.

We are encouraged by progress in this area, and we applaud ongoing work by the bipartisan Congressional Doctors Caucuses toward the introduction of legislation to concretely modernize a payment system that has historically undervalued primary care. Congress should swiftly pass this bipartisan legislation to improve access to care for Medicare patients and beyond.

The AAFP commends CMS and Congress for taking steps to ensure primary care practices can keep up with rising costs and meet patient needs.

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About the American Academy of Family Physicians
The AAFP is the largest national association of family physicians, representing 124,500 physicians and medical students. Family medicine’s cornerstone is an ongoing, personal patient-physician relationship focused on impactful care for people of all ages, races and genders across all medical conditions. The AAFP supports every stage of a family physician's career and provides evidence-based resources, advocacy and community to empower family medicine. To learn more, visit aafp.org. For information about health care, medical conditions and wellness, please visit the AAFP’s patient education website, familydoctor.org.