AMA adds 10 AI codes to CPT 2027 set, taking AI-related CPT codes to 43

The American Medical Association (AMA) released the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) 2027 code set on 9 September 2026. The set adds 10 new codes for AI-related services, taking the total number of AI-related CPT codes to 43. The changes take effect on 1 January 2027 ¹.

The AMA says it convenes a "collaborative CPT editorial process" and that the code set is maintained through "an independent, open and evidence-informed process with broad input from healthcare professionals, government agencies, health plans and industry" ¹.

What the code set contains

The CPT 2027 set contains 453 editorial changes: 299 new codes, 74 revisions and 80 deletions. The AMA says the set "continues to expand to better describe AI-related services that support or assist healthcare professionals". The CPT Editorial Panel also updated its Taxonomy for Artificial Intelligence in Medical Services and Procedures ¹. AMA President Willie Underwood III, MD, MSc, MPH, said: "Medicine advances at an extraordinary pace, and the CPT code set must advance with it." ¹

The taxonomy sits in Appendix S of the code set and was introduced in 2021. Assistive software "provides clinically relevant data without deriving a parameter" and "does not generate an interpretation or provide conclusions", so the physician still interprets and reports. Augmentative software produces "a quantitative or categorical parameter that is qualitatively different than the input", reported as clinical scales, indexes, categorical classifications or risk scores. Autonomous software "automatically (without concurrent physician or other QHP involvement) derives parameters and independently generates clinically meaningful interpretations". It has three levels, from Level I recommendations a clinician must implement or reject to Level III output that "automatically initiates management actions" ³.

The Panel approved revisions to Appendix S at its May 2026 meeting, reported by the AMA on 10 June 2026. The revisions refine the three definitions "to draw clearer boundaries, particularly between assistive and augmentative services", add a key definitions table for "derived parameters," "clinically meaningful," and "automated/automatically", and replace "machine" with "software output(s)" throughout ². Richard Frank, MD, PhD, a Panel member and co-chair of its Digital Medicine Coding Committee (DMCC), said: "The original taxonomy gave us a foundation, but AI in clinical practice has moved quickly." In 2021 only one AI-classified CPT code existed. The AMA says 43 taxonomically-classified codes have since been accepted across code years 2021 through 2028, in cardiology, oncology, ophthalmology, insulin dosing and other fields ².

The CPT 2025 set, released on 10 September 2024, established seven Category III codes for AI augmentative data analysis: 0902T and 0932T for electrocardiogram measurements, 0877T to 0880T for chest imaging, and 0898T for image-guided prostate biopsy ⁴. The CPT 2026 set, released on 11 September 2025, added augmentative codes for coronary plaque and perivascular fat analysis and assistive codes for burn wound imaging and cardiac dysfunction detection ⁵.

What it means for the market

Medicare payment for a code depends on CMS, which sets rates in the annual physician fee schedule. The CMS fact sheet for the CY 2025 final rule, dated 1 November 2024, does not mention AI or the seven Category III AI codes in the CPT 2025 set ⁴⁷. The CMS fact sheet for the CY 2027 proposed rule, issued on 14 July 2026, also makes no reference to AI, software or Category III codes ⁶. Whether CMS will assign national payment to the 10 new codes is unknown from these sources.

For suppliers of AI diagnostic software, the immediate effect is a shared vocabulary. A product that produces a risk score fits the augmentative class, one that only surfaces data is assistive, and one that acts without concurrent clinician involvement is autonomous ³. Mark Synovec, MD, co-chair of the DMCC, said: "A well-defined taxonomy produces better descriptors, and better descriptors produce more accurate reporting." ²

For health systems and payers, the AMA release does not list the 10 new codes or their clinical areas, and the Appendix S page does not say which codes fall in which class, so buyers will need the code set itself to map products to codes ¹³.

The AMA's count of 43 spans code years 2021 through 2028, so some counted codes are not yet in effect ².

The AMA's 9 September 2026 release lists the updated taxonomy among the CPT 2027 changes, and the Appendix S page was updated on 17 September 2026, ahead of the 1 January 2027 effective date ¹³.