Z20.3 — Contact with and (suspected) exposure to rabies
Z20.3 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code for contact with and (suspected) exposure to rabies. It is valid for submission on a claim.
Excludes1 inherited from the categories above Z20.3
These are not written on Z20.3, but they bind it: a note on a category applies to every code beneath it. Billing Z20.3 with anything listed here is a denial.
Excludes2 inherited from the categories above Z20.3
Also inherited, and the opposite of Excludes1: these conditions are not part of Z20.3, but a patient can have both, so you may code both.
Risk adjustment
Z20.3 does not map to an HCC and does not risk-adjust under CMS-HCC V28. That is normal — most ICD-10 codes do not. It still needs to be coded correctly; it just will not move a RAF score.
Medicare coverage
Z20.3 is named in 3 Medicare coverage policies — 3 listing it as supporting medical necessity. Which of them applies to you depends on your Medicare contractor, and coverage genuinely differs by state.
- A54767Billing and Coding: Medicare Preventive Coverage for Certain Vaccines
- A56900Billing and Coding: Immunizations
- A57554Billing and Coding: Immune Globulins
How Z20.3 is indexed
Coders do not find codes by browsing the tabular list — they look them up in the alphabetic index, under the word the physician wrote. These are the index entries that lead here, so you can see which chart wordings map to Z20.3.
- Contact›rabies
- Exposure›rabies
- Rabies›contact
- Rabies›exposure to
Code history
Z20.3 has not changed since FY2024 — no addition, revision or deletion across the three most recent ICD-10-CM releases.
Related codes at this level
Codes that share Z20. If Z20.3 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.
- Z20.0Contact with and (suspected) exposure to intestinal infectious diseases
- Z20.1Contact with and (suspected) exposure to tuberculosis
- Z20.2Contact with and (suspected) exposure to infections with a predominantly sexual mode of transmission
- Z20.4Contact with and (suspected) exposure to rubella
- Z20.5Contact with and (suspected) exposure to viral hepatitis
- Z20.6Contact with and (suspected) exposure to human immunodeficiency virus [HIV]
- Z20.7Contact with and (suspected) exposure to pediculosis, acariasis and other infestations
- Z20.8Contact with and (suspected) exposure to other communicable diseases
- Z20.9Contact with and (suspected) exposure to unspecified communicable disease
Questions about Z20.3
- Is Z20.3 a billable ICD-10-CM code?
- Yes. Z20.3 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.
- Where does Z20.3 sit in the tabular list?
- Factors influencing health status and contact with health services (Z00-Z99), in the block Persons with potential health hazards related to communicable diseases (Z20-Z29).
- What cannot be coded together with Z20.3?
- Z20.3 carries Excludes1 notes, which means the conditions they list can never be coded together with it on the same encounter. Some are written on the categories above Z20.3 (Z20) and apply to it just the same.