Physicians are heading into 2027 facing another proposed Medicare pay cut, with CMS pitching a 1.7% reduction to the conversion factor for physicians who don’t participate in advanced alternative payment models. But several developments from the past few weeks could work in their favor.
Here are five recent developments that could be good news for physicians:
1) Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate introduced a bill Sept. 16 that would bar private equity funds, insurance companies and other for-profit corporations from owning or controlling physician practices. The Stop Corporate Takeovers of Physicians Act of 2026 is led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, along with Reps. Val Hoyle of Oregon, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Suhas Subramanyam of Virginia. Modeled on Oregon’s 2025 corporate practice of medicine law, the bill would allow only entities majority-owned and controlled by licensed physicians to own a practice or employ physicians, and it would bar management services organizations from owning or financing practice interests. It would also limit enforceable noncompetes to physicians who hold at least a 25% ownership stake in their practice and would allow the FTC, state attorneys general and private plaintiffs to force divestitures. Hospitals and nonprofit and public providers are exempt. All of the bill’s sponsors are Democrats, and most sources Becker’s interviewed doubt it will pass.
2) Eighteen states now generally ban or void noncompete agreements for physicians, according to a September state-by-state guide from law firm Tucker Arensberg. Virginia’s ban on traditional noncompetes in new agreements with licensed healthcare professionals took effect July 1, and Montana, Maine and Utah also have 2026 laws that limit the agreements. In Washington, all noncompetes will become void June 30, 2027, regardless of when they were signed.
3) Physician compensation continues to climb faster than productivity, according to SullivanCotter’s 2026 Physician Compensation and Productivity Survey, which covers about 235,000 physicians at 575 healthcare organizations. Median total cash compensation for adult medical specialties rose 7.2% from 2025 to 2026 and 25.2% over five years. Nearly 65% of surveyed organizations plan to expand their physician workforce in the next year, and 49% offer student loan repayment programs.
4) A House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health hearing Sept. 15 examined the Patients First Act, one of the first comprehensive updates to the Medicare physician payment since MACRA took effect in 2015. The bipartisan bill, led by Reps. John Joyce, MD, a Pennsylvania Republican, and Kim Schrier, MD, a Washington Democrat, would give physicians an annual inflationary update tied to the Medicare Economic Index minus 1 percentage point, change the budget neutrality formula and create a five-year hybrid payment pilot for independent primary care practices. Rebecca Andrews, MD, immediate past chair of the American College of Physicians’ board of regents, called the bill “the first bit of hope I’ve had in a long time for primary care.”
5) Minnetonka, Minn.-based UnitedHealthcare released the specific procedure codes it will exempt from prior authorization as part of its pledge to cut those requirements by 30% before the end of 2026. The exemptions cover about 1,700 services across commercial, Medicare Advantage, individual exchange and Medicaid plans and took effect Oct. 1. They include many outpatient procedures, such as joint injections, arthroscopies, colonoscopies, endoscopies, biopsies and hernia repairs.
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