AMA Announces CPT Update for Pediatric COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate

From For the Record

The American Medical Association (AMA) recently announced an editorial update to CPT, the nation’s leading medical terminology code set for describing health care procedures and services, that includes new product and administration codes assigned to the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for children 6 months through 5 years old.

The provisional CPT codes are effective for use on the condition that Moderna’s pediatric COVID-19 vaccine candidate is granted an Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA. The AMA is publishing the CPT code update now to ensure electronic systems across the US health care system are prepared in advance for the potential FDA authorization.

“Authorization of a vaccine for children age 5 and younger would be another important milestone in the fight against COVID-19,” says AMA President Gerald Harmon, MD. “Extending COVID-19 vaccination protection to approximately 18 million young children will significantly reduce their risk of COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and death, and give their parents incredible peace of mind. We strongly urge all parents to get their infants and toddlers vaccinated as soon as they are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine.”

CPT codes clinically distinguish each coronavirus vaccine and dosing schedule to allow for data-driven tracking, reporting and analysis that supports planning and allocation during the public health response to the pandemic. To date, 38 CPT codes have been created for reporting COVID-19 vaccines.

To help ensure accurate coding and reporting of COVID-19 vaccines and immunization services, the AMA offers a vaccine code finder resource to help identify the appropriate CPT code combination for the type and dose of COVID-19 vaccine provided to each patient.

For quick reference, the new product code and administration codes assigned to the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for children in the age range of 6 months to 5 years are:

Product Code

91311  Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (coronavirus disease [COVID-19]) vaccine, mRNA-LNP, spike protein, preservative free, 25 mcg/0.25 mL dosage, for intramuscular use

Administration Codes

0111A  Immunization administration by intramuscular injection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (coronavirus disease [COVID-19]) vaccine, mRNA-LNP, spike protein, preservative free, 25 mcg/0.25 mL dosage; first dose

0112A  Immunization administration by intramuscular injection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (coronavirus disease [COVID-19]) vaccine, mRNA-LNP, spike protein, preservative free, 25 mcg/0.25 mL dosage; second dose

Short, medium and long descriptors for all the new vaccine-specific CPT codes can be accessed on the AMA website, along with other recent modifications to the CPT code set that have helped streamline the public health response to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the COVID-19 disease.

Changes to the CPT code set are considered through an open editorial process managed by the CPT Editorial Panel that collects broad input from the health care community and beyond to ensure CPT content reflects the coding demands of digital health, precision medicine, augmented intelligence, and other aspects of a modern health care system. This rigorous editorial process keeps the CPT code set current with contemporary medical science and technology so it can fulfill its vital role as the trusted language of medicine today and the code to its future.

Source: American Medical Association