For too long, Washington has steered the Medicare payment system down a road that starves it of sufficient funding and ultimately penalizes physicians, patients and taxpayers.

Fortunately, after four consecutive years of cuts to Medicare physician payments under the Biden administration, there’s finally a small payment increase coming in 2026 thanks to President Donald Trump.

That’s good news.

A modest bump, however, won’t fully fix a system that’s been deteriorating for decades. That will instead require longer-term reforms to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS), which will help strengthen independent medicine and improve Americans’ access to care.

The emerging crisis comes into sharp focus at the individual state level.

In Virginia, for example, independent physician practice

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