For a year, AMA has been extensively revising its Appendix S, which is guidance for categories and coding of software-intensive services like AI.
See the current Appendix S here. See a peer reviewed article on its goals here. (PMC9719561.) See an online article by its co-author Dr Frank, November 2025, here.
AMA has multiple bodies - like the Digital Medicine Payment Advisory Group - which can be confusing to outsiders. I asked Chat GPT 5 to explain how it all works. So far as I understand them, its feedback is correct. Let me know if any errors and I will update.
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Here is Chat GPT's understanding:
The AMA’s digital medicine coding structure appears to have evolved in two stages.
First Stage
First, in 2017, AMA formed the Digital Medicine Payment Advisory Group (DMPAG) after identifying, in 2016, a gap in expertise around digital medicine. DMPAG was designed as a broad advisory group to AMA, drawing on physicians, industry experts, consultants, regulatory expertise, and other qualified health care professionals. Its work has focused on barriers to digital medicine adoption and on proposed solutions involving coding, payment, coverage, clinical data, use cases, and AI payment frameworks. (American Medical Association)
Insert Appendix S Here
Appendix S itself originated from this broader DMPAG ecosystem. AMA has stated that Richard Frank, MD, PhD, a member of the CPT Editorial Panel and former Siemens Healthineers chief medical officer, co-chaired the AI Working Group of the AMA-convened DMPAG, and that this working group “generated the content for Appendix S.” Appendix S is the CPT appendix that supplies the AI taxonomy—assistive, augmentative, autonomous—to describe the relationship between machine work and physician/QHP work in AI-enabled services. (American Medical Association)
Second Stage - DMCC
The second stage was the creation of the Digital Medicine Coding Committee (DMCC). AMA states that the CPT Editorial Panel created the DMCC in 2024. Its charge is not to own CPT policy independently, but to respond to requests from the CPT Editorial Panel and support the Panel on coding issues involving digital medicine and/or artificial intelligence by providing or obtaining subject-matter expertise. AMA is explicit that the CPT Editorial Panel retains sole authority to create, revise, and update CPT codes, descriptors, and applicable guidelines. (American Medical Association)
[DMCC may seat experts with expertise not found on the AMA Editorial Panel itself - BQ]
Thus, my understanding is that the DMCC comments on, advises on, and helps shape Appendix S revisions, but does not formally “own” Appendix S. The governing authority is the CPT Editorial Panel. The practical drafting process appears to be driven by AMA CPT staff and subject-matter leaders, especially Dr. Frank, with DMCC input, and then routed back through the CPT Editorial Panel process for review and approval.
Current relevant roles are as follows. Christopher Jagmin, MD, is the current chair of the CPT Editorial Panel; Barbara Levy, MD, is listed as vice chair. Richard Frank, MD, PhD, is currently listed as a member of the CPT Editorial Panel and is a leading architect of the Appendix S AI taxonomy. Mark Synovec, MD, is a pathologist, former chair of the CPT Editorial Panel, and currently serves as co-chair of the AMA Digital Medicine Coding Committee with Dr. Frank. (American Medical Association) (American Medical Association)
In practical terms, the quarterly Appendix S revisions appear to be a CPT Editorial Panel-controlled iterative process: draft revisions are circulated, the DMCC and stakeholders provide input, Dr. Frank/Synovec and AMA staff help refine the language, and the material goes back to the CPT Editorial Panel. The DMCC is therefore best understood as the expert coding advisory body, while the CPT Editorial Panel is the formal decision-making authority.
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