Claim Diagnosis E Code III Diagnosis Present on Admission (POA) Indicator Code
The present on admission (POA) indicator code associated with the diagnosis E codes (principal and secondary).
In response to the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, CMS began to distinguish between hospitalization diagnoses that occurred prior to versus during the admission. The objective was to eventually not pay hospitals more if the patient acquired a condition (e.g., infection) during the admission. This present on admission (POA) field is used to indicate whether the diagnosis was present on admission.
Medicare claims did not indicate whether a diagnosis was POA until 2011.
Medicare claims did not indicate whether a diagnosis was POA until 2011.
This variable is coded, and will contain one of the following values.
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
Y |
Diagnosis was present at the time of admission (POA) |
N |
Diagnosis was not present at the time of admission |
U |
Documentation is insufficient to determine if condition was present on admission |
W |
Provider is unable to clinically determine whether condition was present on admission |
1 |
Unreported/not used - exempt from POA reporting - this code is the equivalent code of a blank, however, it was determined that blanks were undesirable when submitting the data |
Z |
Denotes the end of the POA indicators |
X |
Denotes the end of the POA indicators in special data processing situations that may be identified by CMS in the future. |
Some additional information on this variable: