Guides HCPCS Level II
What Are HCPCS Level II Codes?
HCPCS Level II is the alphanumeric code set CMS maintains for products, supplies, drugs, equipment and services that are not described by CPT. Every code is one letter followed by four digits, and the set is republished four times a year.
What HCPCS Level II is
HCPCS is the Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System, and it has two levels. Level I is CPT, published by the American Medical Association. Level II is the alphanumeric code set maintained by CMS, and it covers the things CPT does not describe: durable medical equipment, prosthetics and orthotics, supplies, drugs administered by a route other than oral, ambulance transport, and a range of services and temporary codes.
In practice, Level II is what you reach for when the item on the claim is a thing — a wheelchair, a mask, an injected drug — or a service that CPT has no code for. The split between the two levels is covered in HCPCS Level I vs Level II.
What a code looks like
Every HCPCS Level II code has exactly the same shape: one letter followed by four digits. There is no decimal point, no variable length, and no hierarchy of the kind ICD-10-CM has — the codes are a flat list, grouped only by their leading letter.
Because the format is so regular, a HCPCS code is easy to recognise in the wild and easy to
search for: typing e1130 into search resolves straight
to the code page.
The leading letter
The letter at the front groups related kinds of items and services together. CMS defines what each range covers in the code file itself, and the ranges are the only grouping HCPCS Level II has — there are no parent codes, no categories, and nothing to drill down through. MedCodeSearch therefore groups the set by its leading letter and nothing more, rather than attaching family names the source file does not publish.
The October 2026 release loaded here contains 8,769 codes spread across 17 leading letters. You can jump to any letter from the HCPCS Level II index.
What the descriptions look like
The clearest way to understand what Level II covers is to read a few real descriptions, quoted exactly as CMS publishes them:
| Code | Official description |
|---|---|
| A7030 | Full face mask used with positive airway pressure device, each |
| E1130 | Standard wheelchair, fixed full length arms, fixed or swing away detachable footrests |
| J0129 | Injection, abatacept, 10 mg |
| A9270 | Non-covered item or service |
Two things are worth noticing. First, the descriptions are specific about quantity and configuration — “each”, “10 mg”, “fixed full length arms” — because the code has to identify a billable unit, not just a category of product. (The J0129 description in the source file continues with a note about administration; the code page shows it in full.) Second, A9270 exists at all, which is a useful reminder that a HCPCS code is an identifier for something, not a statement that anyone will pay for it.
The extra fields CMS publishes
The HCPCS Level II release file carries more per code than a description. Depending on the code, the record can include coverage and pricing indicators, a type-of-service value, the date the code was added, an action code and its effective date, a termination date for codes being retired, and a cross-reference field. MedCodeSearch shows these on a code page where the source file provides them, verbatim and unlabelled by any interpretation of our own.
These fields are administrative metadata from the CMS file. They are not a coverage determination, a fee schedule, or a promise about how any particular payer will adjudicate a claim. Treat them as a pointer to the official policy documents, not a substitute for them.
How often it changes
HCPCS Level II is updated quarterly, with releases taking effect on January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1. That is four times the cadence of ICD-10, and it exists because the set has to keep pace with new products and drugs entering the market. The current release is October 2026.
MedCodeSearch holds all four 2026 quarterly releases, so a code's release history shows when it appeared and whether its description changed. The change lists are on Code Updates for October 2026, and the full cadence is explained in How Often Are HCPCS Codes Updated?.
What is deliberately not here
- CPT (HCPCS Level I) is published and copyrighted by the American Medical Association. It requires a license that MedCodeSearch does not hold, so no CPT code appears on this site.
- CDT dental codes — the D-series — are maintained by the American Dental Association and are likewise licensed. They are excluded for the same reason, which is why no D codes appear in the letters listed on the HCPCS index.
Everything MedCodeSearch does publish comes straight from the CMS release file. See Data Sources for the exact releases and Methodology for how they are imported.
Official sources
Where the facts on this page come from. MedCodeSearch is an independent reference service; these organizations publish the code sets themselves.
- CMS — HCPCS quarterly update
Each quarterly HCPCS Level II release file, published by CMS.
- CMS — Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
The federal agency responsible for ICD-10-PCS and HCPCS Level II.
- American Medical Association
CPT (HCPCS Level I) is an AMA publication. MedCodeSearch does not include CPT.
Look up a code
Search every current ICD-10-CM, ICD-10-PCS and HCPCS Level II code, or browse a set from the top of its hierarchy.
Browse ICD-10-CM Browse ICD-10-PCS Browse HCPCS Level II Code updates
This guide explains how the code sets are built and published. It is not coding, billing, legal or medical advice, and it never recommends a code for a specific patient or claim. See the Disclaimer and Methodology pages.