Breaking News – AMA Announces New CPT® Codes for Multi-Virus Tests for Covid-19 AND Influenza

The AMA released the following announcement: “BREAKING NEWS: AMA announces new CPT® codes for multi-virus tests to detect COVID-19 and flu. The American Medical Association (AMA) published an update to the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®) code set that includes new code additions and editorial revisions for reporting medical services. For quick reference, the two new Category I CPT code and descriptors are:

87636 – Infectious agent detection by nucleic acid (DNA or RNA); severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (Coronavirus disease [COVID-19]) and influenza virus types A and B, multiplex amplified probe technique

87637 – Infectious agent detection by nucleic acid (DNA or RNA); severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (Coronavirus disease [COVID-19]), influenza virus types A and B, and respiratory syncytial virus, multiplex amplified probe techniqueCPT codes ranging from 87301 to 87430 were also revised by removing the undefined term “multi step method” from code descriptors. The revision clarifies the proper reporting for antigen tests that are read by a machine, as compared to those which can be visually interpreted without a machine.

87426 – Infectious agent antigen detection by immunoassay technique, (eg, enzyme immunoassay [EIA], enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay [ELISA], fluorescence immunoassay [FIA], immunochemiluminometric assay [IMCA]) qualitative or semiquantitative; severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (eg, SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2 [COVID-19])In accordance with the above revision, the CPT Editorial Panel approved a new category I code, 87811, to report infectious agent antigen detection by immunoassay with direct visual observation.

87811 – Infectious agent antigen detection by immunoassay with direct optical (ie, visual) observation; severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (Coronavirus disease [COVID-19])In addition to the long descriptors, short and medium descriptors for CPT codes 87636, 87637, 87426 and 87811 can be accessed on the AMA website, along with several other recent modifications to the CPT code set.

Sincerely,
The AMA Team”
For more information about Covid-19 and Influenza coding, view the press release: Click Here