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Go back to First Page %u2022 Harris County Physician Newsletter %u2022 August 2025 %u2022 www.hcms.org 5 NEWS BRIEFSPMI training - Certified Medical Office ManagerJoin us in person for PMI%u2019s Certified Medical Office Manager 4 Instructorled classroom sessions. Thursdays, 9 a.m. %u2013 4 p.m., Oct. 2, Oct. 9, Oct. 16, and Oct. 23. HCMS physician members and their staff save 30% using promo code HCMS30.Sign up today at www.pmimd.com/hcms/.IN MEMORIAMHonoring HCMS members who have passed on.James F. Arnes, MD, Anesthesiology, died on July 27. He had been a member of HCMS since 1978.period of MMMA are excluded from the adjustment. The adjustment%u2019s savings to Medicare are large enough to trigger a budget neutrality adjustment of 0.55%. A table that lists all applicable codes is located at https://bit.ly/45xUk8g. CMS also proposes to update the methodology for allocating indirect PE costs for facilitybased services as some of these costs are already paid separately to the facility. Beginning in 2026, CMS proposes to reduce the portion of PE RVUs allocated based on work RVUs in the facility setting to half the amount allocated in the non-facility setting, thus lowering payment rates for these facility-based services. A table of the estimated impact of these changes can be found at https://bit.ly/4m8hQi0. Per statute, the geographic practice cost indices (GPCIs) are to be updated to reflect the resource costs in each locality to better adjust payment rates for geographic cost differences. For Houston, the proposed 2026 GPCIs are reduced from the 2025 GPCIs, affecting payment rates negatively.Other proposals:%u2022Permanently removing telehealth frequency limitations related to subsequent inpatient visits, subsequent nursing facility visits, and critical care consultations;%u2022Permanently adopting a definition of direct supervision that allows the physician or supervising practitioner (except teaching physicians) to provide supervision through realtime audio and visual interactive telecommunications (excluding audio-only);%u2022Creating optional add-on codes for Advanced Primary Care Management (APCM) services that would facilitate providing complementary behavioral health integration (BHI) or psychiatric Collaborative Care Model (CoCM) services; %u2022Maintaining the performance threshold of 75 points through the 2028 performance period/2030 MIPS payment year; %u2022Adding six new MIPS Value Pathways (MVPs) related to diagnostic radiology, interventional radiology, neuropsychology, pathology, podiatry, and vascular surgery; %u2022Making numerous changes to the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP), such as reducing the time an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) can participate in a onesided model of the BASIC track to five years, modifying the eligibility requirement that ACOs have at least 5,000 Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS) beneficiaries, and removing the health equity benchmark adjustment. To learn more, go to https://go.cms.gov/4mAXHB5.%u2022Creating a new mandatory Ambulatory Specialty Model (ASM) for specialists commonly treating people with Original Medicare for heart failure or low back pain in an outpatient setting across selected regions.Review the proposed rule,the MPFS fact sheet, the MSSP fact sheet, the QPP fact sheet, and the ASM fact sheet for details. Presented by the HCMS Board on Socioeconomics2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) Proposed Rule continued from page 1Health Information TechnologyHCMS%u2019 Health Information Technology (HIT) webpage provides information and resources on many HIT-related topics including telemedicine, EPCS, cybersecurity, information blocking, remote patient monitoring, and other HIT subjects. Visit our HIT webpage at www.hcms.org/HIT. Secrets to PromotionHCMS will host a panel discussion on %u201cSecrets to Promotion%u201dwith representatives from McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, Baylor College of Medicine, and the University of Houston Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine. The event will be held at the TMC Library and will also include networking, appetizers, and cocktails. Join us on Aug. 28, from 4:30 %u2013 7 p.m. This event is open to all Texas-licensed physicians. Registration is required. Register at www.hcms.org/AnnualEvents.