Chair Cassidy Rebukes AMA for Abusing CPT System, Raising Health Care Costs on American Families

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, rebuked the American Medical Association (AMA) for abusing the Current Procedural Terminology® (CPT) coding system, charging exorbitant fees that create higher health care costs for American families.

"I am particularly offended by the AMA abusing its government-endorsed CPT monopoly to charge every stakeholder in the health care system significant amounts of money while advancing an anti-patient agenda," wrote Dr. Cassidy. "As Chairman of the HELP Committee, which has jurisdiction over HIPAA, I am actively reviewing the government-backed monopoly around CPT codes and the impact on patient health care costs, especially in the wake of the AMA's anti-patient, anti-science advocacy efforts."

This comes after Cassidy denounced the AMA for defying President Trump's Executive Order by promoting gender mutilation and castration of children. In the letter, he is seeking information from AMA to see if they are using revenue from CPT codes to support research into these dangerous gender transition procedures.

Cassidy is leading Senate Republicans in ensuring children are protected from woke health care entities ignoring science and undermining President Trump's pro-patient, pro-family agenda.

Read the full letter here or below.

Dear Dr. Mukkamala,

As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), I am writing to seek information regarding the American Medical Association's (AMA's) costly monopoly over the Current Procedural Terminology® (CPT) coding system.

The AMA maintains and annually updates the CPT coding system as a standardized set of descriptive terms and identifying codes used primarily to report medical, surgical, and diagnostic services performed by physicians and other health care professionals. CPT codes are essential for accurate medical billing and claims processing by both public and private health insurers. The codes enable communication and efficient processing of information throughout the entire health care system, and they are relied upon by providers, suppliers, government agencies, and ultimately patients.

Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) (42 U.S. Code § 1320d-2), the federal government mandates the use of standard code sets for the purposes of conducting transactions. In the implementing regulations (45 CFR § 162.1002), CPT codes, as trademarked by the AMA, were selected as one of the standard code sets that must be used. As a result, the government has endorsed a coding monopoly for the AMA.

I am particularly offended by the AMA abusing its government-endorsed CPT monopoly to charge every stakeholder in the health care system significant amounts of money while advancing an anti-patient agenda. The enormous revenue from offering these required tools while advocating non-evidence-based policies raises questions about the AMA's commitment to physicians and the patients they serve.

The AMA characterizes the CPT coding system as "a shared language facilitating the delivery of quality care."1 Shared does not translate to free, however. The AMA charges substantial fees for licenses to use its CPT codes, based on the number of users and the terms of the specific licensing agreement. The AMA also sells subscriptions to "CPT Assistant online," which provides access to articles and resources related to CPT codes.

Last year, the AMA generated over $500 million in revenue.2 More than half of that revenue came from the publication of books and digital content, including the annual publication of CPT codes that are used to code for medical procedures and services.3 CPT codes are required to be used by providers to bill for services, and the AMA has had an exclusive monopoly on publishing these codes for over 40 years.

Your organization has abused this government-backed monopoly by charging exorbitant fees to anyone using the CPT code set, including doctors, hospitals, health plans, and health IT vendors. These fees inevitably are passed on by CPT users to patients in the form of higher health care costs. This is anti-patient and anti-doctor.

As Chairman of the HELP Committee, which has jurisdiction over HIPAA, I am actively reviewing the government-backed monopoly around CPT codes and the impact on patient health care costs, especially in the wake of the AMA's anti-patient, anti-science advocacy efforts. To that end, I request answers to the following questions by October 20, 2025:

Sincerely,

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