The American Medical Association updated its Current Procedural Terminology set to include updates to coding for tests that detect influenza and COVID-19.
The two new codes, per the AMA's CPT editorial panel, 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 technique."
The editorial panel also revised CPT codes ranging from 87301 to 87430 to remove the undefined term "multi step method" from code descriptors.
The codes have been approved for immediate use.