CMS cancels ACA coverage for 760,000; bill would ban corporate ownership of practices; physician pay rises in every specialty group — Morning Medical Update Weekly Recap

CMS cancels ACA coverage for more than 760,000 people

The administration calls the enrollments unauthorized; health policy experts want more detail on how it decided.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said Sept. 22 that it canceled about 315,000 Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace policies covering more than 760,000 people on Aug. 31. It called them unauthorized enrollments and projected about $2.2 billion in returned subsidies. Under the agency's interim final rule, the canceled policies were enrolled with broker help and lacked verified citizenship or immigration documentation, and insurers could not identify claims or reach the enrollees.

Vice President JD Vance, whose anti-fraud task force led the effort, said the group included people who do not exist and real people who do not meet eligibility requirements. Cynthia Cox, director of the ACA program at KFF, told NPR the question is whether the process was appropriate and whether everyone removed was fraudulently enrolled; the administration plans to verify eligibility for at least 419,000 more enrollees in states that use HealthCare.gov.

Democrats introduce bill to ban corporate ownership of physician practices

The measure would bar private equity funds, insurers and other for-profit companies from controlling practices that clinicians don't majority own.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) and Reps. Val Hoyle (D-Oregon), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) and Suhas Subramanyam (D-Virginia) introduced the Stop Corporate Takeovers of Physicians Act on Sept. 16.

The bill would bar private equity funds, insurers and other for-profit companies from owning or controlling medical practices unless licensed clinicians hold majority ownership and control, with exceptions for hospitals and certain nonprofit and public providers. It would also bar management services organizations from having final say over hiring, schedules, compensation, billing and payer contracting, and would prohibit most noncompete agreements for clinicians. The Association for Independent Medicine endorsed the bill, while attorneys at Holland & Knight said debate will likely center on physician autonomy and the bill's effect on investment and access to capital. All six sponsors are Democrats, and Republicans control both chambers of Congress.

Physician pay climbs in every specialty group as a Medicare cut looms

Anesthesiology and radiology pay growth has driven consolidation among private groups, SullivanCotter says.

Median total cash compensation for physicians rose in every major specialty group from 2025 to 2026, led by a 7.2% increase for adult medical specialties. The figures come from SullivanCotter's 2026 Physician Compensation and Productivity Survey, released Sept. 17, which covers 575 health care organizations and about 235,000 physicians. Primary care pay rose 4.6%, while median primary care work relative value units rose 0.8%.

Pay in general, cardiac and pediatric anesthesiology has grown 14% to 16% since 2024, and pay in diagnostic, interventional and mammography radiology has grown 12% to 18%. SullivanCotter said that growth has driven consolidation among private practice groups whose reimbursement has not kept pace.

Separately, CMS has proposed cutting the 2027 Medicare conversion factor 1.68% for physicians outside qualifying alternative payment models as a one-time 2.5% increase for 2026 expires.