Is Z20.6 a billable ICD-10-CM code?

Yes. Z20.6 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.

Where does Z20.6 sit in the tabular list?

Factors influencing health status and contact with health services (Z00-Z99), in the block Persons with potential health hazards related to communicable diseases (Z20-Z29).

What cannot be coded together with Z20.6?

Z20.6 carries an Excludes1 note, which means the conditions it lists can never be coded together with it on the same encounter.

Z20.6

Z20.6 — Contact with and (suspected) exposure to human immunodeficiency virus [HIV]

Billable / specific codeICD-10-CM

Z20.6 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code for contact with and (suspected) exposure to human immunodeficiency virus [hiv]. It is valid for submission on a claim.

Excludes1 — never code together

These conditions cannot occur together. Billing both on the same encounter is a denial.

asymptomatic human immunodeficiency virus [HIV]
HIV infection status (Z21)

Other codes that can never be billed with Z20.6

These codes carry an Excludes1 note pointing at Z20.6. The conflict binds both ways, but ICD-10-CM only writes it down on one side — so you would not find this by reading Z20.6 alone.

B20Human immunodeficiency virus [HIV] disease
Z21Asymptomatic human immunodeficiency virus [HIV] infection status

Risk adjustment

Z20.6 does not map to an HCC and does not risk-adjust under CMS-HCC V28. That is normal — most ICD-10 codes do not. It still needs to be coded correctly; it just will not move a RAF score.

Medicare coverage

Z20.6 is named in 7 Medicare coverage policies — 7 listing it as supporting medical necessity. Which of them applies to you depends on your Medicare contractor, and coverage genuinely differs by state.

A58710Billing and Coding: MolDX: Molecular Syndromic Panels for Infectious Disease Pathogen Identification Testing
A58720Billing and Coding: MolDX: Molecular Syndromic Panels for Infectious Disease Pathogen Identification Testing
A58747Billing and Coding: MolDX: Molecular Syndromic Panels for Infectious Disease Pathogen Identification Testing
A58761Billing and Coding: MolDX: Molecular Syndromic Panels for Infectious Disease Pathogen Identification Testing

How Z20.6 is indexed

Coders do not find codes by browsing the tabular list — they look them up in the alphabetic index, under the word the physician wrote. These are the index entries that lead here, so you can see which chart wordings map to Z20.6.

Contact›AIDS virus
Contact›HIV
Contact›HTLV-III/LAV
Contact›human immunodeficiency virus(HIV)
Exposure›AIDS virus
Exposure›human immunodeficiency virus(HIV)
Human›immunodeficiency virus›contact
Human›immunodeficiency virus›exposure to

Related codes at this level

Codes that share Z20. If Z20.6 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.

Questions about Z20.6

Is Z20.6 a billable ICD-10-CM code?: Yes. Z20.6 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.
Where does Z20.6 sit in the tabular list?: Factors influencing health status and contact with health services (Z00-Z99), in the block Persons with potential health hazards related to communicable diseases (Z20-Z29).
What cannot be coded together with Z20.6?: Z20.6 carries an Excludes1 note, which means the conditions it lists can never be coded together with it on the same encounter.