The AMA's CPT Code Monopoly: How One Trade Association's Copyright on Medical Billing Codes Nets 300 Million Dollars a Year, Shapes Physician Pay, and Why 2026 Might Finally Break It

A private trade association earns roughly $300M/year charging rent on a billing dictionary federal law requires everyone in healthcare to use. That association is the AMA. That dictionary is CPT. Here is how that happened.

In 1983 the federal government adopted CPT for Medicare billing and let the AMA keep the copyright. Then HIPAA named CPT as the manda…