Is Z20.822 a billable ICD-10-CM code?

Yes. Z20.822 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.

Where does Z20.822 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 Z20.822?

Z20.822 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 Z20.822 (Z20) and apply to it just the same.

Z20.822

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

Billable / specific codeICD-10-CM

Z20.822 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code for contact with and (suspected) exposure to covid-19. It is valid for submission on a claim.

Inclusion terms

Alternative wordings a physician may use in the chart for this same code.

Contact with and (suspected) exposure to SARS-CoV-2

Excludes1 inherited from the categories above Z20.822

These are not written on Z20.822, but they bind it: a note on a category applies to every code beneath it. Billing Z20.822 with anything listed here is a denial.

Written on Z20 — Contact with and (suspected) exposure to communicable diseases

carrier of infectious disease (Z22.-)
diagnosed current infectious or parasitic disease -see Alphabetic Index

Excludes2 inherited from the categories above Z20.822

Also inherited, and the opposite of Excludes1: these conditions are not part of Z20.822, but a patient can have both, so you may code both.

Written on Z20 — Contact with and (suspected) exposure to communicable diseases

personal history of infectious and parasitic diseases (Z86.1-)

Risk adjustment

Z20.822 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

Z20.822 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.

A58575Billing and Coding: Respiratory Pathogen Panel Testing
A58577Billing and Coding: Respiratory Pathogen Panel Testing
A58741Billing and Coding: Respiratory Pathogen Panel Testing

How Z20.822 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 Z20.822.

Contact›coronavirus 2019(disease) (novel)
Contact›COVID-19
Contact›SARS-CoV-2
COVID-19›contact(with)
COVID-19›exposure(to)
Exposure›coronavirus 2019(disease) (novel)
Exposure›COVID-19
Exposure›SARS-CoV-2

Code history

Z20.822 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 Z20.82. If Z20.822 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.

Questions about Z20.822

Is Z20.822 a billable ICD-10-CM code?: Yes. Z20.822 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.
Where does Z20.822 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 Z20.822?: Z20.822 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 Z20.822 (Z20) and apply to it just the same.