What Is the CY2026 Efficiency Adjustment and How Does It Impact Internal Medicine Billing?
The CY2026 Efficiency Adjustment is one of the important changes introduced under the 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. Effective January 1, 2026, CMS finalized a 2.5% reduction to the work RVUs of most non-time-based services . However, the adjustment does not apply broadly to every service billed by an internal medicine practice. Time-based services, including many evaluation and management (E/M) and care management services, are excluded. For internal medicine practices, understanding which services are affected is important because the adjustment can change reimbursement for certain procedures and ancillary services even when claims continue to process normally. For a detailed overview, practices can review What Is the CY2026 Efficiency Adjustment and How Does It Impact Internal Medicine Billing? . What Is the CY2026 Efficiency Adjustment? CMS finalized the efficiency adjustment as part of the CY2026 Physician Fee Schedule. The policy applies a -2.5% adjustment to the work comp...
