California physicians and medical practices are beginning to prepare for significant Medical coding changes scheduled to take effect in 2027. The upcoming revisions include a major restructuring of CPT maternity care services and continuing adjustments to Medicare telehealth and remote monitoring billing rules.
The changes are important because coding decisions affect far more than claim submission. They influence documentation, reimbursement, electronic health record workflows, payer edits, staff training, compliance processes, and the way clinical services are represented in healthcare data.
With several months remaining before the 2027 changes take effect, practices have an opportunity to review their systems and prepare rather than waiting until new requirements become active.
Medical Coding Changes Reshape Maternity Care Reporting
One of the most significant upcoming developments involves CPT maternity care services. The American Medical Association has confirmed that major revisions will take effect January 1, 2027, replacing the traditional global maternity coding structure with a more granular approach.
Under the new framework, maternity services will be reported across four major phases: antepartum care, labor management, delivery, and postpartum care. This represents a substantial change from the existing model, which generally bundles much of the pregnancy and delivery episode into global codes.
The objective is to better reflect contemporary obstetric practice, including team-based care, varying care patterns, and the increasing use of different clinical settings.
Practices Need to Review Maternity Workflows
The upcoming Medical coding revisions will require obstetric practices and other organizations providing maternity services to reconsider how clinical encounters are documented and reported.
Beginning in 2027, antepartum care will generally be reported using applicable evaluation and management codes based on the individual encounter. The location of care, including office, hospital, or telemedicine settings, will be relevant to reporting.
Postpartum services will also move away from the existing global postpartum reporting structure and toward encounter-based E/M reporting. Labor management and delivery will receive separate coding treatment under the revised framework.
These changes could require updates to templates, charge capture processes, billing software, and staff education.
CPT Revisions Reflect Modern Obstetric Care
The AMA’s rationale for the maternity restructuring includes significant changes in how pregnancy care is delivered. Patients may receive services from multiple physicians, midwives, hospitals, specialists, and other healthcare professionals during different phases of pregnancy.
Telehealth has also become part of contemporary prenatal care. The revised framework is designed to accommodate more individualized patterns of care rather than assuming that every pregnancy follows the same traditional sequence of visits.
For physicians, this means Medical coding will increasingly need to correspond with the actual services delivered rather than relying on a single bundled representation of an entire episode.
35 Maternity Codes Are Being Changed
The scope of the upcoming revisions is substantial. The AMA reports that 35 maternity care codes are being changed, including 17 deleted codes, 12 new codes, and six revised codes.
The changes affect antepartum care, labor management, delivery, postpartum services, and associated reporting guidelines.
Physician practices should therefore avoid treating the transition as a minor annual code update. The scale of the revisions makes early implementation planning particularly important for obstetricians, family medicine physicians providing maternity care, certified nurse-midwife practices, hospitals, billing teams, and health plans.
Medicare Telehealth Billing Also Remains in Motion
Maternity revisions are not the only area requiring attention. Medicare continues to adjust telehealth policies and billing requirements as virtual care becomes increasingly integrated into clinical practice.
CMS uses the annual physician fee schedule process to make changes to Medicare telehealth services. The agency’s current telehealth framework includes ongoing evaluation of which services can appropriately be furnished through interactive telecommunications technology.
For California physicians, these developments make telehealth-related Medical coding an ongoing compliance consideration. Practices must distinguish between services that qualify for Medicare telehealth payment, remote monitoring services, and other virtual clinical encounters that may have different reporting requirements.
Remote Monitoring Rules Could Affect Practice Operations
CMS has also proposed additional changes involving remote physiologic monitoring and remote therapeutic monitoring for calendar year 2027.
The 2027 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule includes requirements concerning established patients, initiating visits, and the use of clinical staff employed by the reporting practice. CMS is also considering changes to how certain remote monitoring services are valued and reported.
These proposals are not all final. Physicians and practice administrators should therefore distinguish between proposed requirements and rules that have already been finalized.
Nevertheless, the proposals demonstrate why practices should continue monitoring Medicare updates before finalizing their 2027 billing workflows.
California Practices Should Start Preparing Now
The upcoming Medical coding changes create several practical preparation priorities for California practices.
Organizations can begin by identifying the affected services they provide and determining which existing codes, templates, and billing workflows will need modification. Practices should also coordinate with their EHR vendors and revenue cycle teams to determine when software updates will become available.
Staff education should occur before implementation rather than after claims begin generating denials. Coders, physicians, billers, compliance personnel, and practice managers may each require different levels of training.
Early preparation can also provide time to test claims and identify workflow problems before the January 2027 transition.
Payer Readiness Will Be Important
The transition will not depend exclusively on physician practices. Health plans, clearinghouses, billing vendors, EHR companies, and other organizations involved in claims processing will also need to implement the revised medical coding structures to ensure accurate billing and minimize disruptions when the new requirements take effect.
The AMA has specifically emphasized payer readiness as part of its educational resources for the maternity care changes, highlighting the importance of updating medical coding and claims-processing systems before the revised requirements take effect.
For physicians, this makes communication with major payers particularly important. A practice may correctly update its internal medical coding system but still encounter problems if payer edits, authorization rules, or claims-processing systems have not been appropriately updated.
Documentation Will Become Even More Important
Accurate documentation is a central component of effective Medical coding. As maternity services move toward more granular reporting, physicians will need documentation that clearly supports the specific services being billed.
The transition could require greater consistency in identifying the type, timing, location, and complexity of services. Practices should review documentation templates to determine whether they capture information needed for the new reporting structure.
This is especially relevant when care involves multiple providers or occurs across office, hospital, and telehealth settings.
2026 Services Remain Subject to Current Rules
An important transition detail is that the new maternity coding or medical coding framework does not apply retroactively to services provided during 2026.
The AMA states that maternity services delivered during 2026 continue to follow the existing 2026 reporting codes and guidelines. The revised framework begins January 1, 2027.
Practices therefore need to manage two distinct medical coding environments during the preparation period: the current rules for 2026 services and the new requirements that will govern services beginning in 2027.
Maintaining clear transition procedures can help prevent accidental application of future codes to current-year services.
Physicians Should Monitor the Final Medicare Rule
The CMS 2027 Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule was published in July 2026, with the comment period scheduled to close September 14, 2026. CMS expects to issue the final rule later in 2026.
That means some Medicare-related payment and billing details remain subject to change as of September 1.
Physicians should therefore avoid making permanent assumptions based solely on proposed provisions. Monitoring the final CMS rule will be necessary before completing 2027 implementation plans.
Long-Term Outlook for Medical Coding
The direction of Medical coding is increasingly toward more detailed reporting that reflects how healthcare is actually delivered. Maternity care provides a particularly significant example because the traditional global model is being replaced with reporting that separates distinct phases of care.
Telehealth and remote monitoring are also contributing to continued changes in how clinical services are documented and billed.
For California physicians, the practical priority is preparation. Reviewing workflows, updating technology, training staff, communicating with payers, and monitoring final federal guidance can help practices enter 2027 with fewer avoidable disruptions.
The upcoming changes are not simply technical codebook revisions. They have implications for reimbursement, documentation, compliance, data quality, and day-to-day physician practice operations.
Visit American Medical Association – CPT 2027 Maternity Care Services Code Changes to review the official implementation guidance and prepare your practice for the January 1, 2027 changes.
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