Additional COVID-19 Testing Codes Announced

by  Wyn Staheli, Director of Content - innoviHealth
Jun 29th, 2020

On June 25, 2020, the American Medical Association (AMA) announced the addition of three new codes which became effective immediately. According to the press release “Antigen testing is designed to be quicker and simpler than other tests for the coronavirus and could be conducted at the point of care. A breakthrough in coronavirus antigen testing could become part of the broader solution for the widespread testing shortages.”

The new codes are:

87426 Infectious agent antigen detection by immunoassay technique, (eg, enzyme immunoassay [EIA], enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay [ELISA], immunochemiluminometric assay [IMCA]) qualitative or semiquantitative, multiple-step method; severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (eg, SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2 [COVID-19]) 

0223U Infectious disease (bacterial or viral respiratory tract infection), pathogen-specific nucleic acid (DNA or RNA), 22 targets including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), qualitative RT-PCR, nasopharyngeal swab, each pathogen reported as detected or not detected

0224U Antibody, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (Coronavirus disease [COVID-19]), includes titer(s), when performed 

These types of updates, which address rapidly changing conditions related to COVID-19, have been ongoing and will likely continue as more testing options become available to healthcare providers. Codes 86328 and 86769 became effective on April 10, 2020 and code 0202U became effective on May 20, 2020. 

Find-A-Code has been updated to reflect all of these ongoing changes and we continue to add codes as soon as they become available.