ICD-10-CM Codes for Tuberculosis (TB)
The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is designed to promote international comparability in the collection, processing, classification, and presentation of mortality statistics. The World Health Organization (WHO) owns and publishes the classification.
In addition to the main ICD, WHO authorizes the U.S. government to develop a modification for classifying morbidity from inpatient and outpatient records, physician offices, and most National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) surveys. This modification is known as the International Classification of Diseases, Clinical Modification (ICD-CM).
As CDC and health departments work with primary care providers to expand targeted testing and treatment for latent TB infection (LTBI), it is important to better distinguish between initial testing for LTBI and evaluation/screening for TB disease in medical records. From 2017-2018, CDC worked with state and local TB programs and NCHS to develop new and modify existing ICD-CM codes, which will allow healthcare providers to improve clinical documentation related to LTBI and TB disease.
ICD-CM codes are not primarily used for public health surveillance purposes; however, they do provide one way to measure uptake of healthcare recommendations/guidelines, such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force’s recommendation to screen for LTBI in populations at increased riskexternal icon. The new and modified codes improve the ability to collect and use data for evidence-based decision-making at both the patient and population levels, as well as monitor LTBI testing trends outside of the health department setting.
Following are the new and/or modified codes, which were implemented in the 2020 release of ICD-10-CM on October 1, 2019.
Please note that Clinical Modifications may not include changes to WHO’s codes, for example, to modify wording.
New ICD-10-CM Codes:
- Z11.7: “Encounter for testing for latent tuberculosis infection”
- Z86.15: “Personal history of latent tuberculosis infection”
- Z22.7: “Carrier of latent tuberculosis,” which includes a previous positive test for TB infection without evidence of disease, but excludes:
- “nonspecific reaction to cell-mediated immunity measurement of gamma interferon antigen response without active tuberculosis” (R76.12), and
- “nonspecific reaction to tuberculin skin test without active tuberculosis” (R76.11).
Modified ICD-10-CM Code:
- Z11.1: “encounter for screening for respiratory tuberculosis now includes “encounter for screening for active tuberculosis disease.”