List of POA Exempt Codes

Whenever someone goes to see any licensed professional healthcare provider for treatment, that provider is required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 (P.L.104-191) [HIPAA] to document the reason for your visit mainly for insurance purposes. This documentation is done by following the guidelines for coding and reporting in the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) manual.

Code Monitoring

• The ICD-9-CM coding and reporting system is a joint venture of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the American Hospital Association (AHA), and the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA).

Arrival Codes

• There are a set of ICD-9-CM codes that are used to designate the primary and secondary (if any) medical conditions that a patient has Present on Admission (POA). Each POA code identifies the diagnosis and external cause of injury that the healthcare provide reports on any claim paperwork.

POA EXEMPT

• There is a list of hundreds of POA codes that are exempt from being entered into a patient's insurance paperwork because they are conditions that are not respective of a current disease or injury. That complete list can be accessed at the link below. However, here is a rough outline of its contents:

  100 - 999 deals with illnesses like infectious diseases, pregnancy/childbirth, and poisoning;
  V00 - V99 deals with illnesses like vaccinations/inoculations, allergies, elective surgery, and follow-up exams;
  E800 - E999 deals with illnesses like accidents, falls, self-inflicted injuries, and terrorism.