Background 

Congressional lawmakers have released a bipartisan, end-of-year legislative package that would fund the federal government into March. The package includes funding and policies that will directly benefit internal medicine physicians and patients. 

The legislation includes:  

• 2.5 percent Medicare physician payment boost to counter the 2.8 percent Medicare payment cut finalized in the 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.
• 3.5 percent APM participation bonus. 
• Two-year extension of Medicare telehealth coverage and service flexibilities.
• Increases in transparency and regulation of PBMs.
• Two-year reauthorization and funding for the National Health Service Corps.
• Reauthorization and increased funding for the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education program through 2029.
• Funding for community health centers.
• Five-year extension of the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities SUPPORT Act, (which expired over a year ago). which authorizes programs and funding to help curb opioid addiction.

Although this legislation does not address all of our priority issues, such as a more comprehensive Medicare payment fix for physicians and prior authorization reform, it does include funding and policies that will support patient care across the country. 

Support in the House and Senate for this legislation is currently unclear, so we need all of our advocates to contact their members of Congress NOW.

Action Requested: Please email your members of Congress and ask them to vote for the end-of-year legislative package that includes funding for health care programs. 

Please contact Shuan Tomlinson at stomlinson@acponline.org with any questions about this campaign. Thank you for your continued advocacy.