ICD-10 simplifies preventive care coding, sort of.

You have no doubt heard about the eight-fold increase in diagnosis codes included in the transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10, but that is not the whole story. You’ll be relieved to know that, for some encounters and services, ICD-10 offers fewer or the same number of codes. Codes related to preventive services are examples of this. This article will focus on how to select ICD-10 codes for immunizations, routine health exams, and common preventive screenings. These are Z codes found in Chapter 21 of the ICD-10 code book. Although the ICD-10 preventive codes are fairly straightforward, preventive coding can still be complicated, of course, in part because of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). To obtain insurance payments for preventive services covered under the ACA, you must properly code the combination of CPT/HCPCS and ICD-10 codes. For help with that, see “Modifier 33 and more” on page oa2.