Search by Code or Description
How to search Code Lookup by code, description, or question, and how to narrow results.
Documentation draft — not a verified product specification. Autocomplete, filters, sorting, pagination, copying, save/history and Enter-versus-button search behaviour require verification in the UI and are not asserted here.
Overview
Code Lookup supports searching by code, by description, and by question.
Search by code
Enter the full code and select the correct code system tab first: ICD-10-CM, ICD-10-PCS, or HCPCS Level II. Exact code search is best when you already know the code.
Search by description
Enter words from the diagnosis, procedure, service, or item description. Description search is best for discovering candidate entries from a term or phrase. For example, searching the ICD-10-CM tab for a diabetes description can lead to the verified example E11.9 — Type 2 diabetes mellitus without complications.
Search by question
Ask a coding question in plain language and review the results shown. Verify any result against its official description before using it.
Step-by-step instructions
- Select the code system tab.
- Enter the code, description or question.
- Submit the search or select a suggestion, depending on the actual interface.
- Open a candidate to inspect its available details.
- Confirm the selected code in its detail view before using it.
Understanding results
Keep the selected code set visible so you do not mistake a diagnosis for a procedure or supply code. Open a candidate to inspect its details; a search hit alone is not a coding determination.
Tips
- Check the tab: searching the wrong system is the most common cause of missing results.
- Try fewer words if a description search returns nothing, or retry with a broader phrase.
- Verify spelling, code-system selection and effective date for a no-results state.
- Always confirm the selected code in its detail view.
Troubleshooting
- No results: check the tab, spelling, code format and code year, then try a description search.
- Wrong system: ICD-10-CM, ICD-10-PCS, and HCPCS Level II are distinct systems — switch tabs and search again.
- HCPCS search returning an ICD-10-CM result (for example G00 for a G0008 search): re-select HCPCS Level II and report the mismatch.