WASHINGTON, DC — The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) today expressed concerns that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) final 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) includes reductions that could jeopardize patient access to high-value interventional cardiovascular care, despite modest improvements in the overall payment system.

“While we appreciate CMS’ efforts to stabilize and modernize payment reimbursement for physician services, the final rule’s new efficiency adjustment undermines the resources, time, and skills required for complex interventional procedures. It is also unprecedented and arbitrary. Our patients value us doing complex work efficiently and safely and so must CMS. We will be taking our and their case directly to Congress alongside other medical societies,” said SCAI President Srihari S. Naidu, MD, MSCAI. “If left unaddressed, these cuts could discourage the delivery of advanced cardiovascular care for Medicare beneficiaries and create critical financial strain on providers. We must ensure that payment policy recognizes both clinical value and patients' demand and need for these services that in all cases are either improving quality of life or extending life itself.”

Key elements of the ruling include: 

• Efficiency Adjustment: CMS is finalizing a 2.5% efficiency adjustment on all non-timed based codes, as a way of reducing the work relative value units (RVU) and intra-service time of a procedure to account for efficiency gained over time. This new efficiency adjustment is based on the theory that services should be furnished more efficiently over time without accounting for calculations already considered in the existing Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC) process. SCAI shares CMS’s goal of ensuring high-quality, efficient care for Medicare beneficiaries. However, these payment changes will disproportionally impact cardiovascular procedures, impeding treatments that reduce the risk of stroke, heart attack, and other major cardiovascular events for patients, delaying emerging technology adoption, and creating significant financial pressures for physicians and hospitals. This may lead to fewer local care options and longer wait times for patients, particularly those in smaller and rural communities with understaffed hospitals and clinics.

Throughout the rulemaking process, SCAI strongly advocated for new procedure codes to be exempt from across-the-board RVU reductions. These efforts ensured new codes were protected from immediate cuts. SCAI will continue its regulatory and legislative advocacy work with Congress, CMS, and other stakeholders to ensure physicians are appropriately reimbursed, and patient access to lifesaving care is protected. 

Priorities for the organization include urging Congress to enact lasting inflation-based updates to physician payments, ensuring valuation process account for complexity, resources, and outcomes associated with interventional cardiology, and providing member guidance, tools, and comment templates. 

Media Contact:

Gavin Stern 

[email protected], 202-644-8561 

About Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions (SCAI) 

The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions, established in 1978, stands as the primary nonprofit medical society dedicated to representing invasive and interventional cardiology. SCAI's mission is to guide the global interventional cardiovascular community by fostering education, advocacy, research, and upholding standards for quality patient care. For more than 40 years, SCAI has exemplified professional excellence and innovation worldwide, cultivating a reputable community of over 5,000 members committed to advancing medical science and providing life-saving care for individuals, both adults and children, affected by cardiovascular disease.  For more information, visit SCAI.ORG.