Z22.321 — Carrier or suspected carrier of Methicillin susceptible Staphylococcus aureus
Z22.321 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code for carrier or suspected carrier of methicillin susceptible staphylococcus aureus. It is valid for submission on a claim.
Inclusion terms
Alternative wordings a physician may use in the chart for this same code.
- MSSA colonization
Risk adjustment
Z22.321 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
Z22.321 is named in 1 Medicare coverage policy — 0 listing it as supporting medical necessity, and 1 listing it as NOT covered. Which of them applies to you depends on your Medicare contractor, and coverage genuinely differs by state.
- A52379Billing and Coding: CPT Code 87641 (Infectious agent detection by nucleic acid (DNA or RNA); Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin resistant, amplified probe technique)not covered
How Z22.321 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 Z22.321.
- Carrier of›staphylococci(Methicillin susceptible)
- Colonization›MSSA(Methicillin susceptible Staphylococcus aureus)
- Carrier of›bacterial disease NEC›staphylococcal(Methicillin susceptible)
- Positive›culture›nose›staphylococcus(Methicillin susceptible)
Related codes at this level
Codes that share Z22.32. If Z22.321 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.
Questions about Z22.321
- Is Z22.321 a billable ICD-10-CM code?
- Yes. Z22.321 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.
- Where does Z22.321 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).