From a letter to the editor in The Wall Street Journal:

Unfortunately, the president of the American Medical Association, Dr. James Rohack, in his response (“AMA Is Working With the Senate,” Letters, Dec, 28) to the Dec. 21 editorial “Change Nobody Believes In,” does not indicate that his support is another unfortunate example of political deal-cutting in the guise of support for the disastrous health reform bill.

Democrats are touting the AMA’s endorsement, little has been reported in the media that a large portion of the AMA’s income (the exact amount will not be released by the AMA) stems from the exclusive rights to the medical billing codes that doctors are required to use when they submit bills to insurance plans.

These are essentially the same as a bar code, and are used for nearly every medical procedure, from appendectomies to heart transplants. This arrangement results from a once-secret deal established in the 1980s whereby the AMA maintains and updates the codes at no cost to the government, but generates millions each year selling the code books and software licenses to doctors and insurers. This enabled the government to streamline billing procedures for its insurance programs by setting a single code as the standard.