AHIMA/AHA Update FAQ Documents for COVID-19 Coding – No Code Available to Report Lack of COVID-19 Vaccine
AHIMA/AHA Update FAQ Documents for COVID-19 Coding – No Code Available to Report Lack of COVID-19 Vaccine
AHIMA and AHA published updated FAQ documents to answer questions regarding COVID-19 coding at the end of August 2021. AHIMA and AHA posted these FAQs on their respective websites, as well as eventual publication in Coding Clinic. Regular updates to the FAQs allow for experts to quickly issue coding advice for use in healthcare facilities gathering data on COVID-19 conditions and treatments.
Enroll in the Refresh with YES: COVID-19 ICD-10 Coding Learning Path for more details. As AHIMA/AHA update and change the FAQ documents, we will publish additional information.
Revised and Additional ICD-10-CM FAQ Documents
The majority of the changes involve a substitution of the new Post COVID-19 condition, unspecified code, U09.9, effective on October 1, 2021. This code will be used beginning in FY 2022, instead of B94.8, Sequelae of other specified infectious and parasitic diseases. This change affected 10 of the FAQs.
Furthermore, AHIMA/AHA updated question #24 regarding respiratory and non-respiratory symptoms of COVID-19, adding an example. The organizations also published five new FAQs, four of which discuss provider documentation vs. COVID-19 test results and the coding of current vs. history of COVID-19.
The new FAQs cover the documentation and coding of false-positive COVID-19 test results and positive test results in fully vaccinated patients. However, AHA does not currently have a code to report lack of COVID-19 vaccine status. In the final question, encoders confirm this. Encoders should not use code Z28.3, Underimmunization status, for this purpose.
ICD-10-PCS FAQ Documents
There were no additional FAQs for procedure coding in the August 2021 update. Furthermore, the AHA version of the FAQs only lists one FAQ as updated. In addition, question #4 discusses coding for new drugs or other therapeutics administered in the hospital to treat COVID-19. These are codes from the XW0 table for Introduction of Other New Technology Therapeutic Substances.
In addition, this update added the word “new” to the last paragraph of the answer; this clarifies that coders are only to use these codes for these types of new therapeutic substances. See the last paragraph of the answer to PCS FAQ #4. See the addition in the answer below:
These codes should only be assigned for new therapeutic substances being used to treat COVID-19. For administration of “other therapeutic substances” that are being used to treat medical conditions other than COVID-19, see ICD-10-PCS table 3E0. For example, code 3E033GC describes “Introduction of Other Therapeutic Substance into Peripheral Vein, Percutaneous Approach.”
Stay Updated with the Latest Refresh With YES COVID-19 Training
Enroll in the Refresh with YES: COVID-19 ICD-10 Coding Learning Path for more details. As AHIMA/AHA update and change the FAQ documents, we will publish additional information.
For additional updates, review these articles:
- Updates to FAQs for COVID-19 Immunization Reactions, Sequelae, & Other Issues
- FY 2022 ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting Now Available
- 2022 ICD 10 CM Updates Now Available – Post COVID-19 and SDH Codes Included
Ann Zeisset, RHIT, CCS, CCS-P, co-authored this article with Teri Jorwic, MPH, RHIA, CCS, CCS-P, FAHIMA.
