News Report | March 10, 2019
UnitedHealthcare Expands Initiative To Use Diagnostic Codes To Capture Social Determinants Of Health
On January 7, 2019 UnitedHealthcare (UHC) announced an initiative to expand its efforts to identify consumers who have non-medical needs considered social determinants of health. In a memo to its provider organization network UHC asked them to consider using a set of non-diagnostic codes in the International Classification of Disease, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) called Z-codes, in categories Z55 to Z65, to capture information about the consumer’s reasons for a health care visit that further explain the need for the services. These codes identify people with potential health hazards related to their socioeconomic . . .