Traditional Medicare has long offered retirees a major advantage: It generally does not restrict which doctors patients can see. Medicare Advantage plans, which private companies offer as an alternative, often rely on limited provider networks that can change over time.

Newly announced reductions in what Medicare pays physicians could complicate access for patients in either program. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced last week that Medicare will cut 2.3% from the baseline rate used to calculate physician payments in 2027.

The changes also affect how Medicare pays when an office visit and a minor procedure take place on the same day. CMS will reduce payment for the lower priced service by 20%, while paying 100% for the most expensive service and 80% for other procedures performed that day.

Kisha Davis, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, warned that even a limited payment reduction could strain medical practices. “Any cut to primary care payments puts practices at risk, worsens physician shortages, and could make it harder for Medicare patients to see their doctor when they need to,” Davis told Yahoo Finance.

Doctors are not required to participate in Medicare, although most currently do. The concern is that sustained payment pressure could prompt some physicians to limit how many Medicare patients they accept or reconsider their participation in the program.

Medicare physician payments already average less than payments from private insurers, according to KFF. Those payments also are not automatically indexed to keep pace with inflation in the cost of operating a medical practice.

An American Medical Association analysis found that Medicare physician payments fell 33% between 2001 and 2025 after adjusting for inflation. During the same period, the Medicare Economic Index, which tracks inflation in practice costs, climbed 60%.

“Imagine going 20 years without a raise while the cost of running your practice, keeping your staff and buying equipment keeps rising,” Davis said. “For some practices, a further cut could mean closing their doors, and for patients, longer waits for appointments and fewer options for care close to home.”

The effects could reach beyond Medicare because other programs and insurers use its physician fee schedule when setting their own payments. Davis said Tricare, state Medicaid agencies and many other insurers base payments on that schedule.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. presented the changes as part of a broader effort to emphasize prevention and primary care. “Medicare should reward clinicians for keeping people healthy,” Kennedy said in a statement.

“We are putting prevention and primary care at the center of Medicare, closing payment loopholes, and cracking down on waste … changing what Medicare pays for to change what our health system delivers,” Kennedy said.

For now, seniors do not need to assume that doctors will suddenly cancel appointments because of the reduced payment schedule. However, some patients could face consequences if their preferred physicians decide to limit the number of Medicare patients they accept, and the eventual extent of that response cannot yet be predicted.

Physician organizations and some policymakers have raised this issue before, warning that continued payment reductions could cause doctors to leave Medicare. Such departures could reduce the number of physicians willing to treat people covered by the program.

“On behalf of all seniors who rely on the program for their health and well-being, we want to see a high percentage of providers continue to participate in traditional Medicare,” said Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.

The overall number of doctors declining Medicare remains low, although rates of opting out are somewhat higher in certain specialties. The source identified psychiatry and plastic and reconstructive surgery as examples where those rates are higher.

David Lipschutz, codirector of the Center for Medicare Advocacy, said the payment change is unlikely to sharply reduce access because participation remains widespread. “While provider payment can certainly lead to provider choices about whether or not to participate in the Medicare program, virtually all non-pediatric physicians participate, so this change in payment isn't likely to have a major impact on access to physicians in Medicare,” he told Yahoo Finance.