News

The Society of Interventional Radiology has sent the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) our comments on the proposed 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) rule.

Among the items SIR flagged for CMS action include:

• Support for approving the 46 new codes for lower extremity revascularization, 4 revised and 2 new thoracic branch endograft services, 1 new code for irreversible electroporation of tumors, 9 new codes and 3 revised codes for prostate biopsy, and 4 revised codes for endovascular therapy with imaging. SIR was instrumental in getting these codes passed through the American Medical Association’s (AMA’s) Specialty Society Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC) and Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) Editorial Panel.

• Opposition to instituting the Quality Payment Program's Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) Value Pathway (MVP) for interventional radiology, as proposed, due to its lack of consideration for the breadth of IR or how IRs practice.

• Opposition to the proposed "efficiency adjustment," which would reduce payments by 2.5% for physician intra-service time and work relative value units (wRVUs).

Additional topics covered in the comment letter include:

• Payment differential adjustment to remove duplication of indirect practice expenses

• AMA 2025 Physician Practice Information (PPI) and Clinician Practice Information (CPI) Surveys

• Code set valuations

• Potentially misvalued service related to fine needle aspiration

• High-cost disposable supplies SIR thanks the staff and volunteers of the Economics and Quality Divisions for their hard work reviewing the MPFS proposed rule and drafting our response to CMS on behalf of your practices. As a member of SIR, you benefit from the work that SIR staff and member-volunteers undertake in suggesting new CPT codes, helping to value approved codes, drafting quality performance measures, and advocating for your practices to federal and state decision makers through comment letters, meetings, hearings and other activities.