CMS Releases 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule

CMS released the 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) final rule on October 31, accompanied by fact sheets outlining changes to Medicare payment policies and the ninth year of the Quality Payment Program (QPP). The rule includes updates to participation pathways under the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Advanced Alternative Payment Models (APMs), along with several policy refinements affecting diagnostic providers.

For 2026, CMS finalized conversion factors of $33.5675 for APM participants and $33.4009 for non-APM participants. These values include the statutory annual updates, a 2.5% temporary increase to the MPFS conversion factor included in recent budget legislation, and the required budget-neutrality adjustment.

CMS projects an overall reimbursement impact of –2% for radiology, –1% for nuclear medicine, +2% for interventional radiology, and –1% for radiation oncology under the finalized schedule.

Within the QPP, CMS finalized new Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology MIPS Value Pathways, updated benchmarking methods for claims-based measures, and revised several Improvement Activities. The Achieving Health Equity subcategory was removed, with new activities introduced across other categories. CMS also updated cost attribution rules for the Total Per Capita Care Cost measure.

A detailed summary of imaging-related provisions is available through the American College of Radiology (ACR).

Source: https://www.acr.org/News-and-Publications/cms-releases-2026-mpfs-final-rule