COVID-19: New ICD-10 codes for the new year

New additions to the list of ICD-10 codes related to COVID-19 will take effect Jan. 1, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced(www.cdc.gov) earlier this month. The additions include:

Z11.52 — Encounter for screening for COVID-19

Z20.822 — Contact with and (suspected) exposure to COVID-19

Z86.16 — Personal history of COVID-19

M35.81 — Multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS)

M35.89 — Other specified systemic involvement of connective tissue

J12.82 — Pneumonia due to coronavirus disease 2019

The new codes will change prior CDC guidelines(www.cdc.gov) for reporting certain encounters. For example, Z11.52 will replace Z11.59 (Encounter for screening for other viral diseases), which the CDC previously said should be used when patients being screened for COVID-19 have no symptoms, no known exposure to the virus, and test results that are either unknown or negative.

— Kent Moore, Senior Strategist for Physician Payment, American Academy of Family Physicians