The top public health agency in the U.S. has confirmed that medical codes, introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic to indicate the vaccination status of individuals, are being utilized for tracking purposes. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) acknowledged this fact in emails obtained by The Epoch Times via a Freedom of Information Act request.

Although the CDC previously stated that the purpose of the new codes in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) system was to track individuals who are either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, they now claim that they do not have access to this data. However, healthcare systems have access to this information.

According to CDC officials, the ICD codes were designed to allow healthcare providers to monitor their patients, and were implemented in April 2022. The CDC has not yet responded to inquiries by The Epoch Times about these codes, which were added to the U.S. ICD system in 2022.

How Providers Are Using the Codes

In 2021, the CDC presented a proposal for medical codes to track individuals who were either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated against COVID-19. During a meeting about the proposal, Dr. David Berglund, a CDC medical officer, noted that there had been interest expressed in tracking such individuals. The proposed codes included one for individuals who were “unvaccinated for COVID-19” and another for those who were partially vaccinated or had not received a primary series of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Healthcare providers provided comments to the CDC in support of adding these codes, with some describing how they would use them. In a joint letter to the CDC, Danielle Lloyd, a senior vice president at America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), and Adam Myers, senior vice president at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, stated that identifying individuals who were unvaccinated or undervaccinated would enable health insurance providers to identify employees who may benefit from outreach and further education about vaccination. They also emphasized that creating ICD-10 codes that could be tracked via claims would provide key information to help increase immunization rates.

In a separate message, Nancy Andersen, a director with Kaiser Permanente Health Plan and Hospitals, and Erica Eastham, executive director at The Permanente Federation LLC, commended the CDC for the new codes, stating that they provide valuable data for understanding immunization rates and for following up with under-immunized patients. Andersen and Eastham urged the CDC to advise providers to enter an additional code indicating why a person was unvaccinated or undervaccinated, such as due to a contraindication or due to “belief or group pressure.”

These comments were obtained by The Epoch Times through a Freedom of Information Act request. While most of the providers and other healthcare groups, including the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), did not respond to inquiries, AHIP declined to disclose what education it provided to individuals tracked through the new codes. However, a spokesperson pointed to a February 28, 2022, article outlining the steps providers have taken to promote vaccination.

The codes in question are a part of the 10th edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). The copyright for ICD-10 is held by the World Health Organization (WHO) of the United Nations, but the CDC has stated that the U.S. government has been allowed to adopt the edition. However, the new codes are not a part of the WHO’s ICD.

All healthcare entities covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) are required to use the U.S. version of the ICD, which is updated at least once a year. Coded ICD data from providers enable public health officials to conduct many disease-related activities, including allowing doctors to easily retrieve a patient’s medical history when they see a new patient, according to the CDC.

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