NAACOS Welcomes Bipartisan Legislation to Reform Physician Payment

Statement from Emily Brower, president and chief executive officer, the National Association of Accountable Care Organizations

WASHINGTON (July 15, 2026) – The National Association of Accountable Care Organizations (NAACOS) applauds Reps. John Joyce, M.D. (PA-13), Greg Murphy, M.D. (NC-03), and Kim Schrier, M.D. (WA-08), respective chairs of the GOP and Democratic Doctors Caucuses, for introducing the Patients First Act. The bipartisan legislation provides an important inflationary payment update for physicians and other clinicians, maintains higher payment for clinicians participating in risk-bearing alternative payment models (APM), and freezes the qualifying participant thresholds for three years before giving the Secretary of Health and Human Services the authority to set the threshold.

These policies address long-standing challenges that have threatened access to high-quality care for America’s seniors. Clinicians cannot take a pay cut, and their pay must reflect the ongoing investment required to provide care. Additionally, retaining higher payment updates for physicians in APMs will help ensure that accountable care becomes the prevailing approach in traditional Medicare. APMs have reduced costs by more than $37 billion over 12 years, saving Medicare $14 billion, while continuing to improve health quality.

While these policies provide a strong foundation, financial incentives to adopt APMs will be weaker than remaining outside of value-based care models for several years. Lawmakers must retain the advanced APM incentive in the interim to continue to drive adoption. We look forward to working with Congress on a strong transition to further value-based patient care that delivers cost savings and improves care outcomes.

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About NAACOS. The National Association of ACOs (NAACOS) is a member-led and member-governed nonprofit of more than 500 ACOs and value-based care entities in Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial insurance working on behalf of physicians, health systems, and other providers across the nation to improve quality of care for patients and reduce health care cost. NAACOS represents more than 10 million beneficiary lives through Medicare’s population health-focused payment and delivery models.