AMA Sued Over Its 'Paywalled' Billing Codes

A recent lawsuit was filed by PatientRightsAdvocate.org against the American Medical Association (AMA) over the billing codes known as Current Procedural Terminology (CPT). The plaintiffs argue that the AMA has no valid copyright on CPT and thus cannot charge fees for access to the codes. Federal and state laws have already incorporated CPT by reference, and copyright law generally recognizes that no one can own the law.

Even if the AMA's copyright were valid, the public still has a right to access CPT under fair use and copyright misuse principles. To obtain a physical copy of the codes from the AMA, members of the public must pay $137.89. Healthcare providers are required to pay an upfront annual fee of $82.50 and an additional annual fee of $18.50 per user. PatientRightsAdvocate.org asserts that these charges ultimately increase the costs of healthcare for American patients, employers, hospitals, health plans, and tech firms.

The case is part of PatientRightsAdvocate.org's mission to make healthcare more affordable, accountable, and transparent. The organization believes that once CPT codes are freely available, the public will gain clear visibility into how their medical bills are constructed.

In response, the AMA maintains that CPT serves as the uniform language of medicine and is continuously updated through an open, transparent process. The AMA brings expertise and scale to this work, collaborating with medicine, government, and industry. The association vows to defend its intellectual property rights to ensure the continued access physicians and patients rely on.