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Policy & oversight

Three Doctor-Lawmakers Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Restructure Medicare Physician Pay

The Patients First Act, introduced July 15, would replace the current cycle of year-to-year payment patches with inflation-tied annual updates, a new primary-care payment pilot, and a simplified quality-reporting system.

By the Goodsurance editorial teamJuly 17, 2026

Representatives John Joyce, Greg Murphy, and Kim Schrier, the respective chairs and co-chairs of the House Republican and Democratic Doctors Caucuses, introduced H.R. 9693, the Patients First Act, on July 15, 2026. All three are physicians, and the bill reflects a diagnosis shared across specialties and party lines: the current Medicare physician payment system does not keep pace with the rising cost of running a medical practice.

Under the current framework, Congress has repeatedly passed short-term patches to prevent automatic payment cuts under the Sustainable Growth Rate's successor formula. The Patients First Act would replace that cycle with an annual update tied to a measure of medical-sector inflation, providing more predictability for practices.

The bill also proposes a five-year hybrid payment pilot for primary care beginning in 2027, combining a monthly per-patient payment with fee-for-service payments for individual visits. Sponsors say the model is meant to encourage primary care in underserved and rural areas. To that end, the bill extends the rural work Geographic Practice Cost Index floor, a provision that benefits physicians in 34 states.

Starting in 2032, the existing Merit-based Incentive Payment System would be replaced by a new framework called the Patient Outcome Improvement National Tabulation System, or POINTS, which sponsors describe as simpler and more clinician-led. The bill had 30 co-sponsors at introduction and drew early endorsements from multiple medical specialty societies.

In plain words

On July 15, three doctor-members of Congress introduced a bill to change how Medicare pays physicians. Right now, Congress often has to pass last-minute fixes to prevent pay cuts. This bill would give doctors steady, inflation-tied pay increases instead. It also would test a new monthly payment for primary care doctors, especially in rural areas, and replace the current quality-reporting system with a simpler one starting in 2032.

Understand the basics first

Source: Rep. John Joyce (house.gov)
Read at the source →

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