ICD 10 Coding Alert

Reader Questions:

Say Hello to Hay Fever

Published on Tue Sep 05, 2023

Question: I have a medical report where the physician diagnosed the patient with hay fever. I can never remember if I should use J30.1 or J30.2 to report this condition.

Could you point me in the right direction?

Iowa Subscriber

Answer: Hay fever is reported with J30.1 (Allergic rhinitis due to pollen). Start by searching the ICD-10-CM Alphabetic Index for Fever > hay (allergic), which provides you with J30.1. If you continued to follow the indentations in the Alphabetic Index to due to > pollen, any plant or tree, you’d still arrive at J30.1. After locating the code in the Alphabetic Index, you’ll then verify it in the Tabular List.

While J30.1 features a descriptor of “Allergic rhinitis due to pollen,” the Tabular List features several other synonyms that you can report with J30.1.

Additional synonyms for code J30.1 include:

Allergy NOS due to pollen
Hay fever
Pollinosis

On the other hand, J30.2 (Other seasonal allergic rhinitis) is reserved for when the patient is experiencing seasonal rhinitis and the physician identifies the specific cause, but the ICD-10-CM code set currently doesn’t have a definitive diagnosis code for the particular condition.