2025 ICD-10-CM Diagnosis Code Z82.1

Family history of blindness and visual loss

ICD-10-CM Code:
Z82.1
ICD-10 Code for:
Family history of blindness and visual loss
Is Billable?
Yes - Valid for Submission
Code Navigator:

Z82.1 is a billable diagnosis code used to specify a medical diagnosis of family history of blindness and visual loss. The code is valid during the current fiscal year for the submission of HIPAA-covered transactions from October 01, 2024 through September 30, 2025. The code is exempt from present on admission (POA) reporting for inpatient admissions to general acute care hospitals.

This code describes a circumstance which influences the patient's health status but not a current illness or injury. The code is unacceptable as a principal diagnosis.

Code Classification

  • Factors influencing health status and contact with health services
    Z00–Z99
    • Persons with potential health hazards related to family and personal history and certain conditions influencing health status
      Z77-Z99

Approximate Synonyms

The following list of clinical terms are approximate synonyms, alternative descriptions, or common phrases that might be used by patients, healthcare providers, or medical coders to describe the same condition. These synonyms and related diagnosis terms are often used when searching for an ICD-10 code, especially when the exact medical terminology is unclear. Whether you're looking for lay terms, similar diagnosis names, or common language alternatives, this list can help guide you to the correct ICD-10 classification.

  • Family history of visual disturbance
  • Family history of visual disturbance
  • FH: Blindness
  • FH: Blindness/low vision
  • FH: Low vision

Clinical Classification

Clinical Classifications group individual ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes into broader, clinically meaningful categories. These categories help simplify complex data by organizing related conditions under common clinical themes.

They are especially useful for data analysis, reporting, and clinical decision-making. Even when diagnosis codes differ, similar conditions can be grouped together based on their clinical relevance. Each category is assigned a unique CCSR code that represents a specific clinical concept, often tied to a body system or medical specialty.

Personal/family history of disease

CCSR Code: FAC021

Inpatient Default: X - Not applicable.

Outpatient Default: Y - Yes, default outpatient assignment for principal diagnosis or first-listed diagnosis.

Tabular List of Diseases and Injuries

The following annotation back-references are applicable to this diagnosis code. The Tabular List of Diseases and Injuries is a list of ICD-10-CM codes, organized "head to toe" into chapters and sections with coding notes and guidance for inclusions, exclusions, descriptions and more.


Inclusion Terms

Inclusion Terms
These terms are the conditions for which that code is to be used. The terms may be synonyms of the code title, or, in the case of "other specified" codes, the terms are a list of the various conditions assigned to that code. The inclusion terms are not necessarily exhaustive. Additional terms found only in the Alphabetic Index may also be assigned to a code.
  • Conditions classifiable to H54

Index to Diseases and Injuries References

The following annotation back-references for this diagnosis code are found in the injuries and diseases index. The Index to Diseases and Injuries is an alphabetical listing of medical terms, with each term mapped to one or more ICD-10-CM code(s).

Code Edits

The Medicare Code Editor (MCE) detects errors and inconsistencies in ICD-10-CM diagnosis coding that can affect Medicare claim validity. These Medicare code edits help medical coders and billing professionals determine when a diagnosis code is not appropriate as a principal diagnosis, does not meet coverage criteria. Use this list to verify whether a code is valid for Medicare billing and to avoid claim rejections or denials due to diagnosis coding issues.

Unacceptable principal diagnosis

There are selected codes that describe a circumstance which influences an individual's health status but not a current illness or injury, or codes that are not specific manifestations but may be due to an underlying cause. These codes are considered unacceptable as a principal diagnosis.

Present on Admission (POA)

Z82.1 is exempt from POA reporting - The Present on Admission (POA) indicator is used for diagnosis codes included in claims involving inpatient admissions to general acute care hospitals. POA indicators must be reported to CMS on each claim to facilitate the grouping of diagnoses codes into the proper Diagnostic Related Groups (DRG). CMS publishes a listing of specific diagnosis codes that are exempt from the POA reporting requirement. Review other POA exempt codes here.

CMS POA Indicator Options and Definitions

POA Indicator: Y

Reason: Diagnosis was present at time of inpatient admission.

CMS Pays CC/MCC DRG? YES

POA Indicator: N

Reason: Diagnosis was not present at time of inpatient admission.

CMS Pays CC/MCC DRG? NO

POA Indicator: U

Reason: Documentation insufficient to determine if the condition was present at the time of inpatient admission.

CMS Pays CC/MCC DRG? NO

POA Indicator: W

Reason: Clinically undetermined - unable to clinically determine whether the condition was present at the time of inpatient admission.

CMS Pays CC/MCC DRG? YES

POA Indicator: 1

Reason: Unreported/Not used - Exempt from POA reporting.

CMS Pays CC/MCC DRG? NO

Convert Z82.1 to ICD-9-CM

Below are the ICD-9 codes that most closely match this ICD-10 code, based on the General Equivalence Mappings (GEMs). This ICD-10 to ICD-9 crosswalk tool is helpful for coders who need to reference legacy diagnosis codes for audits, historical claims, or approximate code comparisons.

Family hx-blindness

ICD-9-CM: V19.0

This is a direct match with no additional mapping qualifiers. The absence of a flag generally means the mapping is considered exact or precise. In other words, the ICD-10 code maps cleanly to the ICD-9 code without qualification, approximation, or needing multiple codes.

Patient Education


Family History

Your family history includes health information about you and your close relatives. Families have many factors in common, including their genes, environment, and lifestyle. Looking at these factors can help you figure out whether you have a higher risk for certain health problems, such as heart disease, stroke, and cancer.

Having a family member with a disease raises your risk, but it does not mean that you will definitely get it. Knowing that you are at risk gives you a chance to reduce that risk by following a healthier lifestyle and getting tested as needed.

You can get started by talking to your relatives about their health. Draw a family tree and add the health information. Having copies of medical records and death certificates is also helpful.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention


[Learn More in MedlinePlus]

Vision Impairment and Blindness

If you have low vision, eyeglasses, contact lenses, medicine, or surgery may not help. Activities like reading, shopping, cooking, writing, and watching TV may be hard to do. The leading causes of low vision and blindness in the United States are age-related eye diseases: macular degeneration, cataract and glaucoma. Other eye disorders, eye injuries, and birth defects can also cause vision loss.

Whatever the cause, lost vision cannot be restored. It can, however, be managed. A loss of vision means that you may have to reorganize your life and learn new ways of doing things. If you have some vision, visual aids such as special glasses and large print books can make life easier. There are also devices to help those with no vision, like text-reading software and braille books.

The sooner vision loss or eye disease is found and treated, the greater your chances of keeping your remaining vision. You should have regular comprehensive eye exams by an eye care professional.

NIH: National Eye Institute


[Learn More in MedlinePlus]

Code History

  • FY 2024 - No Change, effective from 10/1/2023 through 9/30/2024
  • FY 2023 - No Change, effective from 10/1/2022 through 9/30/2023
  • FY 2022 - No Change, effective from 10/1/2021 through 9/30/2022
  • FY 2021 - No Change, effective from 10/1/2020 through 9/30/2021
  • FY 2020 - No Change, effective from 10/1/2019 through 9/30/2020
  • FY 2019 - No Change, effective from 10/1/2018 through 9/30/2019
  • FY 2018 - No Change, effective from 10/1/2017 through 9/30/2018
  • FY 2017 - No Change, effective from 10/1/2016 through 9/30/2017
  • FY 2016 - New Code, effective from 10/1/2015 through 9/30/2016. This was the first year ICD-10-CM was implemented into the HIPAA code set.