Who owns the meaning of a medical billing code?

The five-digit procedure codes on nearly every medical claim come from Current Procedural Terminology (CPT), and a 2026 lawsuit sets out who owns it. Federal law requires CPT codes in virtually every electronic healthcare transaction, the complaint says, yet the American Medical Association claims CPT as its private property: a printed copy costs the public $137.89, and the AMA says it is for “personal use” only. In 1997 a federal appeals court held the AMA’s CPT copyright unenforceable for copyright misuse (Practice Management Information Corp. v. AMA, 121 F.3d 516 (9th Cir. 1997)). In July 2026 CMS asked for comments on whether alternatives to CPT exist (91 Fed. Reg. 43,842). The suit asks the court to let a patient-rights group post CPT free, citing the Supreme Court’s rule that “no one can own the law” (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 590 U.S. 255 (2020)). Source: the complaint in PatientRightsAdvocate.org, Inc. v. American Medical Association, No. 1:26-cv-09746 (N.D. Ill., filed Aug. 13, 2026).