Efficiency Adjustment
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently finalized its Calendar Year (CY) 2026 rule for the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS), which includes a provision that will be detrimental to surgeon compensation.
The CY2026 MPFS puts in place a 2.5% reduction in work Relative Value Units (RVUs), with further reductions occurring every three years. This “efficiency adjustment” contradicts peer-reviewed longitudinal studies that show surgeons are not completing procedures more quickly, contrary to claims made by CMS.
CMS has finalized the proposal to apply an efficiency adjustment of 2.5%, with additional codes exempted from the adjustment. CMS will specifically be exempting time-based codes, services on the CMS telehealth list, and new codes for CY 2026. This policy will affect work relative value units (RVUs) and the intra-service time component of non-time-based services, where CMS believes efficiencies have been achieved over time in care delivery.
STS, along with 33 other medical societies, sent a letter to the leaders of the Senate and House urging them to stop the implementation of the policy. We encourage STS members to reach out to your members of Congress and ask them to stop the implementation of this flawed policy.
STS Members on the Hill
November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month and Jeffrey Velotta, MD, joined the STS Government Relations staff in Washington, DC, for a day of advocacy. He visited Capitol Hill to promote awareness of lung cancer screening, advocate for mobile lung cancer screening, and seek increased funding for lung cancer research. If you're interested in advocacy opportunities in DC, please contact advocacy@sts.org.
Register Now for the STS 2026 Advocacy Conference
With so much uncertainty in Washington and ongoing changes to the healthcare landscape, it’s more important than ever to champion the cardiothoracic specialty and make your voice heard. Register to attend the 2026 STS Advocacy Conference, March 9-10, in Washington, DC.
Join your STS colleagues in our nation’s capital to meet with members of Congress and advocate for your specialty and patients by sharing stories and discussing how legislation affects you, your colleagues, and your patients.
Will this be your first time attending? No problem! All participants will receive training on key issues and support materials for your meetings with members of Congress and their staff.
Up to twenty scholarships are available for early career surgeons and senior cardiothoracic surgery residents. Apply by Dec. 15, 2025.
Visit our website for more information about the conference, including a brief agenda, scholarship opportunities, and hotel options.
Questions? Email us at advocacy@sts.org.
STS Advocacy at the 2026 Annual Meeting
Come by and say hello during the upcoming 2026 Annual Meeting. Learn about all the work STS is doing and how you can get more involved in STS advocacy and the STS and the STS-PAC.
Thank You to our 2025 STS-PAC Contributors!
1/1/2025-11/7/2025
Diamond Level ($5,000)
Vinay Badhwar, MD
Joseph Cleveland, MD
Anthony Estrera, MD
Robert Headrick, MD
Dawn Hui, MD
Karen Kim, MD
Thomas MacGillivray, MD
Wilson Szeto, MD
Platinum Level ($2,500-$4,999)
Kevin Accola, MD
George Arnaoutakis, MD
Joseph Bavaria, MD
Traves Crabtree, MD
Alberto De Hoyos, MD
Gregory Fontana, MD
John Howington, MD
Timothy Misselbeck, MD
Keith Naunheim, MD
James O’Brien
Scott Silvestry, MD
Ibrahim Sultan, MD
Jess Thompson, MD
Gold Level ($1,000-$2,499)
Marvin Atkins, MD
Emile Bacha, MD
Carl Backer, MD
William Baumgartner, MD
John Benfield, MD
Michael Bowdish, MD
John Calhoon, MD
Robbin Cohen, MD
Mark Connolly, MD
James Davies, MD
Joseph Derani, MD
Jessica Donington, MD
Aaron Eckhauser, MD
Afshin Ehsan, MD
Felix Fernandez, MD
Raja Flores, MD
Arnar Geirrson, MD
Jeremiah Hayanga, MD
Robert Higgins, MD
Charles Huddleston, MD
Kenneth Kesler, MD
Junaid Khan, MD
Svetlana Kotova, MD
Seth Krantz, MD
Paul Linsky, MD
J. Trent Magruder, MD
Daniel Miller, MD
Kevin Miller, MD
John Mitchell, MD
Susan Moffatt-Bruce, MD
Nabil Munfakh, MD
Alykhan Nagji, MD
Sara Pereira, MD
Anastasios Polimenakos, MD
Thomas Pollard, MD
Mahesh Ramchandani, MD
Jennifer Romano, MD
Patrick Roughneen, MD
Joseph Sabik, MD
Thomas Schwann, MD
Steven Scott, MD
Barry Sheppard, MD
Paul Thomas, MD
Robert Tranbaugh, MD
Jeffrey Velotta, MD
Elaine Weiss, JD
Douglas Wood, MD
David Wormuth, MD
Silver Level ($500-$999)
Awais Ashfaq, MD
Edward Bergeron, MD
Castigliano Bhamidipati, MD
Hartmuth Bittner, MD
Daniel Boffa, MD
Linda Bogar, MD
Donnell Bowen, MD
Alejandro Bribriesco, MD
William Brinkman, MD
Foster Bryan, MD
Andrea Carpenter, MD
Yvonne Carter, MD
Aaron Cheng, MD
P. Aryeh Cohen, MD
John Conte, MD
Ashok Kumar Coimbatore Jeyakumar, MD
Brett Duncan, MD
Melanie Edwards, MD
Ivan Gonzalez-Cancel, MD
David Tyler Greenfield, MD
Jeremy Herrmann, MD
Arminder Jassar, MD
Tsuyoshi Kaneko, MD
Anita Krueger, MD
Scott Lemaire, MD
Virginia Litle, MD
Lucian Lozonschi, MD
John Mayer, MD
John Mitchell, MD
Vicki Morton-Bailey, DnP
Francis Nichols, MD
David Overman, MD
Gaetano Paone, MD
Joseph Phillips, MD
Joseph Platz, MD
Richard Prager, MD
Eric Presser, MD
Ricardo Quarrie, MD
Xingyi Que, MD
Bill Ragalie, MD
Matthew Reinersman, MD
Iva Smolens, MD
Sandra Starnes, MD
Jack Sun, MD
Betty Tong, MD
Thomas Varghese, MD
Stephen Yang, MD
Bronze Level ($100-$499)
James Allan, MD
Ioana Baiu, MD
Craig Baker, MD
Amira Barmanwalla, MD
Thomas Beaver, MD
Daniel Beckles, MD
John Benfield, MD
Thomas Birdas, MD
Ross Bremner, MD
Alexander Brescia, MD
Lisa Brown, MD
Paul Brown, MD
John Casterline, MD
Daniel Cavanaugh, MD
Roberto Cervera, MD
Josue Chery, MD
George Comas, MD
William Conner, MD
David Cooke, MD
Kim De La Cruz, MD
Uday Dasika, MD
Michael Defrain, MD
Todd Demmy, MD
William Deschner, MD
Ankit Dhamija, MD
Elisabeth Dexter, MD
Robert Dowling, MD
Andrew Duda, MD
Brett Duncan, MD
Trevor Ellison, MD
Cherie Erkmen, MD
Dana Ferrari-Light, MD
Katharina Fetten, MD
Andrew Fiore, MD
Henning Gaissert, MD
Divyakant Gandhi, MD
Erin Gillaspie, MD
Allen Graeve, MD
Robert Gustafson, MD
Jane Han
Robert Hetz, MD
Mark Iannettoni, MD
Bakri Kaakeh, MD
Sandeep Kashyap, MD
William Keeling, MD
Svetlana Kotova, MD
Benjamin Kozower, MD
Sidney Levitsky, MD
Philip Linden, MD
Tessa London, MD
Michael Lopez, MD
Venkat Machiraju, MD
John Markley, MD
Courtney Maxey-Jones, MD
J. Hunter Mehaffey, MD
Walter Merrill, MD
Mark Meyer, MD
Brian Mitzman, MD
Richard Moggio, MD
Ezequiel Molina, MD
Joseph Motta, MD
Timothy Mullett, MD
Ashok Muralidaran, MD
Patrick Myers, MD
Jennifer Nelson, MD
Alexander Nissen, MD
Tuan Nguyen-Duy, MD
J. Edward Okies, MD
Chibueze Onyempka, MD
Mark Orringer, MD
Marc Pelletier, MD
Jennifer Perri, MD
Veera Porapaiboon, MD
Ourania Preventza, MD
Stevan Pupovac, MD
Cemil Purut, MD
Joe Putnam, MD
V. Sreenath Reddy, MD
Uma Sachdeva, MD
John Sadoff, MD
Rawn Salenger, MD
Edward Savage, MD
Frank Sellke, MD
Elliot Servais, MD
Nazly Shariati, MD
John Sherwood, MD
Paul Tang, MD
Elaine Tseng, MD
Joseph Turek, MD
Frans Van Wagenberg, MD
Salim Walji, MD
Lee Wiensch
Fatima Wilder, MD
Seth Wolf, MD
Chi-Fu Yang, MD
Resident Level
Joshua Braganza, MD
Rachael Essig, MD
Ahmed Hozain, MD
John Kennedy, MD
Connor McDonald, MD
Sara Sakowitz, MD
Aakash Shah, MD
Ashley Stading, MD
Raymond Strobel, MD
Andy Tully, MD
Haley Tupper, MD
Navin Vigneshwar, MD