By Alan Condon

The American Medical Association’s push to create new billing codes for autonomous AI is drawing concern from nursing leaders, who argue hospitals could soon be reimbursed for clinical work performed by algorithms while registered nurses remain excluded from direct payment mechanisms.

The proposed codes, known as clinically meaningful algorithmic analyses, or CMAA, would establish a pathway for hospitals and providers to bill for certain AI-generated clinical analyses performed without physician work at the point of care. The proposal comes as AI adoption accelerates across healthcare and the AMA expands current procedural terminology, or CPT, codes for AI-enabled services.

The proposal highlights a longstanding gap in healthcare reimbursement, according to nurse.org. While bedside nursing represents one of hospitals’ largest labor investments, registered nurses do not have standalone CPT billing codes. Instead, nursing services are generally included within hospitals’ room charges rather than reimbursed individually.

“If the AMA can build an entirely new billing category for AI, it can build one for nursing,” Rebecca Love, MSN, RN, founder of the Commission for Nurse Reimbursement, said in a July 16 report.

“For decades, health systems have been told nursing work is too complex to unbundle nurses from the room rate and bill. However, the very process used to develop AI’s CMAA codes allows us to develop a CMAA equivalent for nursing,” Ms. Love said. “We must act now, for if we don’t, AI will be reimbursed for the very work nursing has long done but was never able to bill for. Nursing will remain a cost, AI will become a revenue stream, and the implications will be devastating to nursing.”

According to the AMA, the proposed CMAA framework is designed for services in which algorithms analyze clinically relevant data — such as medical images, laboratory results or heart rhythm data — and produce medically actionable outputs without traditional physician work at the point of care. The AMA said the CPT Editorial Panel has seen a growing number of applications for services that rely entirely on algorithmic analysis and established a Digital Medicine Coding Committee to help develop a consistent coding framework.

The AMA’s AI taxonomy — housed in Appendix S of the CPT code set — already classifies AI-enabled services as assistive, augmentative or autonomous based on the amount of work performed by the technology. The 2026 CPT code set also includes new AI-related codes supporting technologies that assist physicians by identifying clinically relevant findings or augmenting clinical analysis.

Richard Frank, MD, PharmD, a member of the AMA-convened CPT Editorial Panel, said during the AMA’s 2025 Annual Symposium that autonomous AI remains subject to physician oversight.

“We’re a long way from robots running off with patient care,” Dr. Frank said.

The American Society of Registered Nurses said AI should complement — not replace — nursing practice.

“Artificial intelligence is already becoming part of healthcare, and its role will continue to grow,” the organization said in a July 16 statement. “The important question isn’t whether AI will be used, but whether it helps clinicians deliver better care and better outcomes for patients.”

ASRN said AI can improve efficiency by reducing documentation and administrative work but cautioned that technology cannot replace nurses’ clinical judgment, patient advocacy or ability to recognize subtle changes in patients’ conditions.

“As the AMA moves forward with CPT codes for AI-enabled clinical services, reimbursement policies should reflect the fact that technology is a tool. It should support the work of healthcare professionals, not diminish the value of the people providing the care,” the ASRN's statement said. “Nurses should be involved from the beginning whenever AI systems are developed or introduced into clinical practice. The people who use these technologies every day are in the best position to identify what improves patient care, what creates unnecessary work and where patient safety could be affected.”

The AMA is accepting stakeholder comments on the proposed coding framework through Aug. 10.

Separately, CMS is accepting public comments on its proposed 2027 payment rule through Sept. 14, giving nurses and other healthcare professionals an opportunity to weigh in on how AI services may be reimbursed in the future.