What’s new with the AMA CPT code set for 2025

Each year, the healthcare industry embraces new and exciting medical innovations, technologies, and cutting-edge procedures. And each year, the American Medical Association (AMA) updates the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®) code set to reflect these important changes that impact patient care and reimbursement. These CPT code changes allow medical practices to capture and receive payment for the critical work they do. 

Medical coders, physicians, clinical documentation improvement specialists, and anyone else who uses medical codes on a regular basis can access key updates of the CPT code set and implementation tips through this guide.

Effective January 1, 2025, the CPT code set will undergo its annual transformation. Precisely how many CPT changes are there for 2025? This time around, the annual update includes 270 new codes, 112 deletions, and 38 revisions.

Specialties that will see the largest impact include cardiology, general surgery, and radiology; however, the update also includes many changes to CPT codes for vaccines/labs, telemedicine, remote patient monitoring (RPM), and more.

Here’s a brief summary of what to expect:

The 2025 CPT update includes several high-impact changes that may affect providers in multiple specialties. 

Here’s what you need to know:

It’s impossible to cover every CPT update in this article, which is why it’s important to review relevant sections in the 2025 CPT Coding Manual to ensure compliance in your medical practice. 

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Reporting accurate CPT codes ensures revenue integrity for medical practices. It also reduces payer and provider rework.

When providers report the right medical codes, payers process those codes and pay medical claims as quickly as possible. This saves time and reduces administrative costs for everyone. However, clinical documentation must also justify and support any CPT codes that providers assign. 

Here are 3 tips providers can use to promote compliance:

It’s always a good idea to dive into the CPT code changes as soon as possible. This gives ample time for medical coders, physicians, clinical documentation improvement specialists, and anyone else who uses medical codes on a regular basis to know what’s new, revised, and deleted. 

Here are 5 steps you can take now to ensure medical coding compliance.

The AMA provides many resources and training opportunities for in-depth education about the 2025 CPT updates. Visit this site for more information. Also plan to attend the upcoming CPT & RBRVS 2025 Annual Symposium held virtually November 20-22, 2024. 

If you’re looking for additional resources, check out the meeting minutes from the September 2023 RVS update committee as well as the CPT editorial panel summary of panel actions from September 2024. Tebra also offers a free medical billing workbook that can help address CPT challenges.