The American Medical Association is dismantling the decades-old maternity care coding system and replacing it with a new structure starting next year, responding to sustained pressure from OB-GYNs and maternity specialists who argued the existing codes no longer reflected modern pregnancy care delivery.

This is the first comprehensive maternity coding overhaul in the CPT system's history. The old codes bundled antepartum, delivery, and postpartum services into global packages that failed to account for high-risk pregnancies, multiple pregnancies, complications, or the reality that many obstetric providers now operate within team-based models rather than solo practice. OB-GYNs have been vocal about undercoding—claiming they were unable to capture the true complexity and time spent managing gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, maternal mortality risk factors, and other conditions that fall outside the global package structure. Hospital-based maternal-fetal medicine specialists faced even steeper reimbursement gaps.

For practice owners and hospital administrators, this shift has immediate revenue implications. Expect coding clarity to improve, but also expect significant billing workflow disruption during the transition. Practices will need to invest in EHR and practice management system updates to reflect new codes. DSOs with significant obstetric volume should audit their current coding patterns now—many practices have likely been leaving money on the table. Reimbursement rates for the new codes are not yet finalized; CMS will establish Medicare payment levels, and private payers will follow. The transition period will require staff retraining and likely a temporary increase in claim denials as providers and payers calibrate to the new structure.

What to watch: CMS's final RUC valuations for the new maternity codes, expected in Q4 2026, which will determine Medicare reimbursement and set the floor for most commercial rates.