Data-Driven Policy Insights at ACR 2026 Economics Forum

The annual Economics Forum at ACR 2026 — the College’s annual meeting — included news from the commercial payer world, a CPT® and Relative Value Scale Update Committee update, practice expense input changes, and a report on the activities of the AI Economics Committee. Moderated by Gregory N. Nicola, MD, FACR, outgoing chair of the ACR® Commission on Economics, this year’s forum featured updates by Michael Booker, MD, Cindy Yuan, MD, PhD, Frank J. Rybicki, III, MD, PhD, FACR, and Lauren Nicola, MD, FACR (incoming chair of the Commission on Economics).

Part one of the forum kicked off with a presentation by Bobby Mukkamala, MD, President of the AMA, who discussed the importance of physicians getting involved in advocacy endeavors, as patient lives truly depend on it. In his address, Dr. Mukkamala, an otolaryngologist in Flint, MI, walked attendees through his own recent personal journey navigating the healthcare system as a patient undergoing treatment for brain cancer. Mukkamala expressed appreciation for the coalition-building relationship between the AMA and ACR to advocate on behalf of patients and the house of medicine.

The next presentation was by Michael Booker, MD, MBA, ACR Alternate RUC Advisor, who dove into the topic of practice expense. He began by defining practice expense as what is intended to pay for all things healthcare-related outside of work, malpractice insurance and position expenses. This includes costs associated with staff, property rents and imaging and other equipment. Dr. Booker claimed that practice expense depends a lot on where you deliver service, and when changes occur in practice expense, it has a significant effect on funding for radiology practices. He showed the audience a graphic demonstrating how physician work payment stays the same regardless of the care delivery setting — whether it is an inpatient center, outpatient center or hospital.

Dr. Booker shifted his focus to Medicare policy and how it affects payers. He brought up the AMA Physician Practice Information Survey, which taps thousands of practices regarding cost information. A big reason for doing this survey, according to Dr. Booker, was that these formulas to determine reimbursement have not been updated in roughly 20 years, and many factors within the formula have changed. One major change he walked attendees through was updating the Medicare Economic Index. Dr. Booker explained that Medicare can only spend a certain amount of money on physician work and practice expense. He noted that currently only 51% of Medicare money goes to physician work, but the survey suggests this number should be raised to 61%. Another aspect the survey calculated was practice expense cost by specialty. Dr. Booker explained that there is a budget set for all specialties to spend from, and that the variety of constraints needs to be updated after years of neglect.

More news from the ACR Economics Forum will appear in next week’s Advocacy in Action.

By Alex Utano, associate editor, and Nicole B. Racadag, publications manager, ACR Bulletin