AMA Announces Additional CPT Codes for COVID-19 Vaccines
AMA has issued new immunization and administration CPT codes for the COVID-19 vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. The new CPT codes will be effective upon approval of the vaccines by the FDA. To get more details, read along!
On DEC 17, 2020, the American Medical Association (AMA) announced that the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®) code set is being updated by the CPT Editorial Panel to include immunization and administration codes for the COVID-19 vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.
The new CPT codes will only be used when the AstraZeneca vaccine is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for Emergency use. The reason AMA is releasing the new CPT codes now is to ensure that computer databases around the U.S. health care system are updated in readiness for the prospect of FDA approval or authorization for the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The AstraZeneca vaccine will be added to the two other COVID-19 vaccines that were earlier developed by Pfizer and Moderna. The AMA, on Nov. 10, announced that it has issued unique CPT codes for COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna to clinically distinguish each vaccine for better tracking, reporting, and analysis so as to support data-driven planning and allocation. (We wrote about new CPT codes to report vaccine-specific immunizations in our December issue of the newsletter.)
The AMA President, Susan R. Bailey, M.D. had this to say: “A mass vaccination effort with the first available COVID-19 vaccines presents enormous logistical challenges. The ability to correlate each COVID-19 vaccine with its own unique CPT code provides analytical and tracking advantages that ensure optimal vaccine distribution and administration, especially for patients who will need to complete the two-dose immunization schedule."
Here is the new Category I CPT code and long descriptor for the AstraZeneca vaccine:
- 91302: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (coronavirus disease [COVID-19]) vaccine, DNA, spike protein, chimpanzee adenovirus Oxford 1 (ChAdOx1) vector, preservative free, 5x1010 viral particles/0.5mL dosage, for intramuscular use.
In addition to the new vaccine-specific product CPT code, the AstraZeneca vaccine has been issued vaccine administration CPT codes for its two-dose immunization schedule. These CPT codes will be used to report the actual work of administering the vaccine, updating the electronic record, and counseling the patients or caregivers.
The new vaccine administration CPT codes and long descriptors for the AstraZeneca vaccines are as follows:
0021A: Immunization administration by intramuscular injection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (coronavirus disease [COVID-19]) vaccine, DNA, spike protein, chimpanzee adenovirus Oxford 1 (ChAdOx1) vector, preservative free, 5x1010 viral particles/0.5mL dosage; first dose
0022A: …;second dose
In addition to the long descriptors, short and medium descriptors for all the new vaccine-specific CPT codes can be accessed on the AMA website. Several other recent modifications to the CPT code set that have helped streamline the public health response to the SAR-CoV-2 virus and the COVID-19 disease can also be accessed on the website.
