Effective January 1, 2027, the Current Procedural Terminology codes will replace the global maternity payment model to bill for antepartum, labor, delivery, and postpartum phases.
The American Medical Association (AMA) and the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) Editorial Panel have approved a comprehensive restructuring of maternity care services codes, marking a departure from the long-standing global payment model, according to an announcement from the Association.
Beginning January 1, 2027, the CPT code set will transition to a granular framework that replaces the traditional bundled payment model with codes that accurately represent 4 distinct phases of care:
This transition follows nearly 2 years of collaborative efforts between the AMA, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), and various national medical specialty societies. By moving away from the legacy global model, which historically reported maternity care as a single service, the new structure is designed to reflect the realities of modern, team-based obstetric practice, a change that ACOG is welcoming.2
“There have been major changes in the provision of obstetric care since the 1990s when the global obstetric payment was introduced,” said ACOG President Steven J. Fleischman, MD, MBA, FACOG, in a statement.
“The unbundling of the obstetric codes has been long overdue and will finally offer relief to so many ob-gyns who viewed the global obstetric payment as a major pain point. This new code structure now aligns with clinical guidelines and will reduce administrative burden, improve data collection, and enable ob-gyns to provide more tailored, patient-centered care while also being paid fairly and equitably so we can sustain our practices.”
The shift in coding is partially driven by changes in clinical standards, such as the move toward the Tailored Prenatal Care Delivery for Pregnant Individuals, which was released in April 2025. The change introduced a new approach that allows for individualized care plans based on medical, structural, and social determinants of health.
“This change to care plans could result in fewer than the standard 12–14 in-person visits for low-risk pregnant patients and the use of other care modalities such as home monitoring, which would have made the continuation of the global obstetric payment unsustainable,” ACOG stated in a news release.1
“The current payment methodologies simply no longer reflect the care being provided today or the care ob-gyns will provide in the near future,” said ACOG CEO Sandra E. Brooks, MD, MBA, FACOG. “This includes the increasing use of home monitoring and telehealth and additional monitoring needed in the postpartum period for mental health conditions, hemorrhage, and cardiac conditions, which are the leading causes of maternal deaths. The new unbundled obstetric codes now align with the nuanced and varied experience of pregnancy and will allow clinicians to provide more tailored, patient-centered care while also increasing access and improving maternal health outcomes.”2
For patients, the transition is not expected to result in increased costs. An estimated 93% of health plans in the United States are compliant with the Affordable Care Act and, therefore, are not allowed to require cost sharing for preventive services. Consequently, patients on those plans should not be subject to copayments for prenatal visits or screenings. However, there will continue to be charges for labor, delivery, and other services not considered preventive care.
To facilitate this transition, the AMA is releasing the 2027 codes ahead of the standard schedule to ensure that physicians, payers, and EHR vendors have sufficient time to prepare. ACOG and the AMA have developed several educational resources to support clinicians through this transition as they move toward a framework that supports improved transparency and risk adjustment.¹
You can view and download these codes via the AMA website,
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