For the first time in six years, the Texas Medical Association will host a live Medicare webinar, updating physicians on what they need to know about the wide-ranging 2026 Medicare physician fee schedule, from how payment will be impacted to a new alternative payment model (APM) option for specialists.
The Thursday, Nov. 20 CME session, from noon to 1 pm, will feature TMA’s medical economics team and provide 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ and 1 ethics credit for participants in attendance for at least 45 minutes with a Q&A session for physicians to query the presenters in the final 15 minutes. To ensure your question is addressed, email Cheryl Krhovjak, director of TMA’s Education Center.
Register by Nov. 19; it is free for both TMA members and nonmembers, compliments of TMA Insurance Trust. To register, click the “Add to Cart” button, the checkout button on the next page, and then fill out the contact info page to get to the final checkout.
For those not able to attend, TMA will make the recorded version available on its CME site. Free on-demand CME is a benefit of TMA membership and does not extend to nonmembers.
The presentation will include updates from the final fee schedule, expected in early November, on:
- Medicare enrollment and spending trends;
- Medicare payment reform;
- Medicare coverage and payment;
- Medicare telehealth;
- The Quality Payment Program; and
- APMs.
The proposed rule released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in July includes a one-year, positive 2.5% adjustment to Medicare payment, plus an additional 0.75% increase for qualifying APM participants and 0.25% increase for nonqualifying APM participants.
This plan debuts separate conversion factors for APM participants and nonparticipants, plus a new APM for specialists, and updates to the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System.
However, the proposed rule also included a 2.5% practice efficiency cut reducing payment for nearly 9,000 non-time-based physician services. In its Sept. 12 letter to CMS, TMA pointed out that cut could offset the positive payment bump, which comes following five consecutive years of Medicare payment reductions.
TMA’s medical economics team will also provide an update on the telemedicine geographic-site restrictions, which allowed beneficiaries to receive care in their homes before they expired on Sept. 30. As of this writing, Congress has not acted to restore those.
Though Medicare’s new Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction (WISeR) Model was not officially part of the physician fee schedule, TMA will utilize the webinar to brief physicians on the pilot program that aims to use enhanced technology such as artificial intelligence to expedite the utilization review process – primarily prior authorization – for a select group of Medicare services the agency.
TMA’s latest legislative action alert urges Congress to pause WISeR until physician concerns are allayed.
Explore more federal updates and Medicare resources on TMA’s federal advocacy webpage.
Phil West
Associate Editor
(512) 370-1394
phil.west[at]texmed[dot]org
Phil West is a writer and editor whose publications include the Los Angeles Times, Seattle Times, Austin American-Statesman, and San Antonio Express-News. He earned a BA in journalism from the University of Washington and an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin’s James A. Michener Center for Writers. He lives in Austin with his wife, children, and a trio of free-spirited dogs.