Dear Psychedelic Medicine: Congrats on Your AMA CPT Codes! Now, Get More Boring

Starch that collar. This is Healthcare.

Hi there, this is a column about my concerns with the progress of psychedelic medicine towards becoming just medicine.

The American Medical Association owns the current procedural terminology (CPT) code system (a trademark of the AMA). That is right, every time there is a bill submitted in healthcare, the intellectual property around the sequence of letters and numbers that describe that medical procedure? It is the is the property of the AMA. And this week, they announced that there would be experimental codes that described treatment with psychedelic medicine. This is important…ish¹. This also means that the party is over. It is time for psychedelic treatments to get boring. Fast. It’s a cultural norm in the house of medicine.

American Medical Association (AMA) has approved a Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®) III code for psychedelic therapies. The full details of the code are expected to be released by the AMA in July 2023 and the code will go into effect when it is published on January 1, 2024.

Keep in mind, when I said fast before, it is in the context of a medical system so Byzantine that that press release just announces a decision was made. We will have some sense of what it means in July 2023. Eventually, we will know what the code is in 2024. This is lightning speed in the house of medicine. Buckle up! It is important to take your time to make sure the buckle goes in appropriately, and isn't in the wrong thing in the backseat, because it has to be the right buckle in the right plug for the buckle. You get the point. Buckling up is a process, not an event.

First, a disclosure. I have never used drugs recreationally in my life. And I think that particular piece of information is important to my point of view.