The American Medical Association’s proposal to create new billing codes for autonomous artificial intelligence is raising an important question across the healthcare industry: if hospitals may soon receive reimbursement for clinical work performed by algorithms, why are registered nurses still largely excluded from direct reimbursement pathways?
For healthcare organizations already facing nurse shortages, rising labor costs, and increasing patient care demands, this debate is about more than billing codes. It is about how the healthcare system defines value and whether the work of nurses, including internationally educated nurses, will be properly recognized in the future.
At VisaMadeEZ, we work closely with healthcare employers that rely on foreign-trained nurses, international registered nurses, and immigrant healthcare professionals to strengthen their clinical teams. As AI becomes more deeply embedded in hospitals and health systems, one thing remains clear: technology may support care, but nurses remain essential to delivering it.
The AMA’s Proposed AI Billing Codes: What Healthcare Employers Should Know
The American Medical Association is considering a new category of CPT billing codes known as clinically meaningful algorithmic analyses, or CMAA. These codes would allow hospitals, physicians, and other providers to bill for certain AI-generated clinical analyses that are performed without direct physician work at the point of care.
The proposed framework would apply to autonomous AI tools that analyze clinically relevant data, such as:
- Medical imaging
- Laboratory results
- Heart rhythm data
- Other patient information used to guide clinical decisions
The AMA has stated that these codes are designed to create a consistent billing structure as AI-enabled healthcare services continue to expand. The organization’s current AI taxonomy classifies healthcare AI as assistive, augmentative, or autonomous depending on how much work the technology performs.
Supporters argue that clearer CPT codes for artificial intelligence in healthcare could help providers adopt tools that improve efficiency, reduce delays, and support clinical decision-making. However, nursing leaders are warning that the proposal exposes a much deeper problem in healthcare reimbursement.
Nurses Still Lack Standalone CPT Billing Codes
Registered nurses are central to patient care, hospital operations, and clinical outcomes. Yet in most hospital reimbursement models, nursing services are not billed separately through standalone CPT codes.
Instead, bedside nursing care is typically bundled into a hospital’s room charge. This means the work of nurses including assessment, monitoring, patient education, care coordination, medication support, advocacy, and early detection of patient deterioration is often treated as an operating cost rather than a directly reimbursable clinical service.
That distinction matters.
If AI systems receive dedicated billing codes while registered nurses do not, hospitals could find themselves in a reimbursement environment where algorithmic clinical analysis becomes a revenue stream while nursing labor remains categorized as a cost center.
For hospitals already struggling with nurse recruitment, nurse retention, and clinical staffing shortages, that could create even more pressure on the nursing workforce.
Nursing Leaders Warn Against Undervaluing Human Clinical Judgment
Nursing advocates have raised concerns that AI reimbursement may advance faster than reimbursement reform for nursing services.
Rebecca Love, MSN, RN, founder of the Commission for Nurse Reimbursement, has argued that if the healthcare system can create billing codes for AI, it should also be able to develop reimbursement pathways for nursing work.
Her concern is straightforward: nurses have performed clinically meaningful work for decades without direct reimbursement recognition. If autonomous AI begins receiving payment for certain types of analysis while nursing care remains bundled and invisible, the system may further undervalue the people providing hands-on care.
This issue is especially important because nursing is not simply task completion. Nurses provide clinical judgment, patient advocacy, emotional support, education, care coordination, and real-time observation that technology cannot fully replicate.
AI may identify patterns in data. Nurses understand the patient behind the data.
AI Can Support Nurses But It Cannot Replace Them
Artificial intelligence has a meaningful role to play in modern healthcare. Used responsibly, AI tools may help nurses and clinicians by reducing administrative burden, improving documentation workflows, flagging clinical changes, and supporting faster analysis of patient information.
For healthcare organizations dealing with nurse shortages, AI may become part of a broader strategy to improve operational efficiency. However, AI should not be viewed as a substitute for a stable, well-trained nursing workforce.
Nurses remain essential in areas where technology has clear limitations, including:
- Recognizing subtle changes in a patient’s condition
- Providing compassionate bedside care
- Communicating with families
- Advocating for patient needs
- Applying clinical judgment in complex situations
- Coordinating care across interdisciplinary teams
- Supporting patient safety in real time
For hospitals, long-term care facilities, rehabilitation centers, and health systems, the path forward should not be “AI versus nurses.” It should be AI supporting nurses while healthcare employers continue investing in nurse recruitment, nurse immigration, and workforce development.
Why This Matters for Healthcare Organizations Hiring International Nurses
The debate over AI billing codes is unfolding at the same time healthcare organizations across the United States are facing persistent nursing shortages. Many employers continue to rely on international nurse recruitment to fill critical roles and maintain safe staffing levels.
Foreign-trained nurses, immigrant nurses, and internationally educated healthcare professionals play a vital role in supporting U.S. hospitals and care facilities. For many healthcare employers, hiring international nurses is no longer just an option it is a workforce necessity.
As reimbursement policies evolve, healthcare organizations should remain focused on building a resilient clinical workforce. That includes:
- Recruiting qualified international registered nurses
- Sponsoring nurses through appropriate U.S. immigration pathways
- Planning ahead for visa processing timelines
- Supporting nurse credentialing and licensing requirements
- Retaining international nurses through strong onboarding and compliance programs
- Maintaining staffing strategies that prioritize patient care and safety
AI may help improve healthcare delivery, but it will not solve the nursing shortage on its own. Employers still need experienced, licensed, and compassionate nurses at the bedside.
International Nurse Recruitment Remains a Strategic Priority
For healthcare employers, the future of care will likely include both advanced technology and global talent. Hospitals and healthcare organizations that plan ahead will be better positioned to manage staffing demands while adapting to new reimbursement models.
International nurse hiring can help organizations address immediate and long-term workforce needs, particularly in high-demand areas such as:
- Acute care nursing
- Long-term care nursing
- Rehabilitation nursing
- Medical-surgical nursing
- Emergency nursing
- Critical care nursing
- Skilled nursing facilities
- Rural healthcare staffing
However, hiring foreign nurses requires careful immigration planning. Healthcare employers must navigate U.S. visa options, employment-based sponsorship, credentialing, licensure, prevailing wage requirements, and compliance obligations.
That is where experienced immigration legal support becomes essential.
The Policy Conversation Is Still Open
The AMA is accepting stakeholder comments on the proposed AI coding framework through Aug. 10. Separately, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is accepting public comments on its proposed 2027 payment rule through Sept. 14.
These comment periods give nurses, healthcare executives, professional associations, and other stakeholders an opportunity to weigh in on how AI-enabled healthcare services should be reimbursed.
For healthcare organizations, this is also a reminder that workforce policy, reimbursement policy, and immigration strategy are increasingly connected. Decisions made today about AI reimbursement, nurse recognition, and healthcare staffing will influence the future of patient care.
The Bottom Line: Technology Should Support Nurses, Not Diminish Them
The healthcare industry can embrace innovation without overlooking the people who make patient care possible. AI tools may become valuable clinical resources, but they should not be elevated at the expense of nurses.
Registered nurses including international nurses who come to the United States to serve patients and strengthen healthcare teams deserve recognition for the critical work they perform every day.
As hospitals and healthcare organizations prepare for the future, investing in both technology and nursing talent will be essential. AI can analyze data. Nurses deliver care.
And in healthcare, that human connection still matters.
Partner With VisaMadeEZ to Hire International Nurses With Confidence
Healthcare organizations cannot afford to wait until staffing shortages become a crisis. Whether you are a hospital, skilled nursing facility, long-term care provider, rehabilitation center, or healthcare staffing organization, VisaMadeEZ can help you build a reliable international nurse hiring strategy.
Our immigration law firm helps healthcare employers navigate the complex process of hiring foreign-trained nurses, including visa strategy, employment-based immigration, compliance guidance, and case preparation.
If your organization is ready to recruit international registered nurses and strengthen your healthcare workforce, VisaMadeEZ is here to make the process clearer, smoother, and more efficient.
Ready to hire international nurses for your healthcare organization? Contact VisaMadeEZ today to discuss your nurse immigration and visa sponsorship needs.
