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Admit Type

Last updated: 06-16-2025
ColumnData TypeDescriptionTerminology
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What are Admit Type Codes?​

Admit Type Codes are standardized values used on institutional (facility) inpatient claims to indicate the general nature of a patient's admission. These codes provide context about the urgency or purpose of a hospital admission and are commonly used in conjunction with other claim-level information such as Admit Source and Patient Status.

They are maintained by the National Uniform Billing Committee (NUBC) and appear in the UB-04 manual under Form Locator 14.

On what kind of claims are Admit Type Codes found?​

Admit Type Codes are found only on inpatient institutional claims submitted using the UB-04 claim form (or its electronic equivalent, the 837I format). They are not present on outpatient or professional (CMS-1500/837P) claims.

How often are Admit Type Codes updated?​

Admit Type Codes are maintained by the NUBC and are updated infrequently—typically only when a new category is introduced or when clarification of an existing category is needed. It is important to track any changes across UB-04 manual revisions or quarterly CMS/NUBC updates.

Code Structure​

Admit Type Codes are 1-digit numeric values from 1 to 9, each representing a category of admission:

CodeDescription
1Emergency
2Urgent
3Elective
4Newborn
5Trauma Center
6Not Used
7Information Not Available
8Reserved for National Assignment
9Reserved for National Assignment

Note: Codes 6, 8, and 9 are not in active use but may appear in datasets due to legacy or invalid submissions.

Notes for Analysts​

  • Admit Type should not be used alone to infer acuity or severity; pair with Admit Source, DRG, and diagnosis codes for a fuller picture.
  • Code 7 ("Information Not Available") is sometimes used when admission data is incomplete—flag such records for review.
  • Some payers may require specific Admit Types to trigger payment or coverage validation, particularly for Trauma (5).

Key Use Cases for Admit Type Codes​

  • Segmentation of inpatient utilization by admission type (e.g., comparing elective vs. emergency admissions).
  • Trend analysis of emergency vs. scheduled admissions.
  • Payment logic in risk-adjustment or rate-setting models.
  • Quality analysis, especially for identifying avoidable admissions.
  • Denial management and claim audits for incorrectly coded admissions.

Tuva Seed File Update Process​

Note: This is the maintenance process used by Tuva to maintain the current codeset in the Tuva package. Tuva users do not need to complete this step unless they are leveraging a different version of codes or are no longer updating to the current version of the project, but need an updated terminology set.

The below description outlines the update process as it existed prior to changes in the ResDac site no longer publishing updates to this code set. Updates are currently on hold until a new source can be identified

  1. Navigate to the ResDac Inpatient website
  2. Click "View Data Documentation" under the page title
  3. Locate and select the Variable Name "Claim Inpatient Admission Type Code"
  4. Open the .txt file at the bottom of the webpage

Follow steps 5-11 if there are any changes. Otherwise, skip to step 12

  1. Copy and paste the code list into any text editor
  2. Format the codes as a CSV file and save
    • Find and replace "—" with a hyphen (-)
  3. Import the CSV file into any data warehouse
  4. Upload the CSV file from the data warehouse to S3 (credentials with write permissions to the S3 bucket are required)
-- example code for Snowflake
copy into s3://tuva-public-resources/terminology/admit_type.csv
from [table_created_in_step_7]
file_format = (type = csv field_optionally_enclosed_by = '"')
storage_integration = [integration_with_s3_write_permissions]
OVERWRITE = TRUE;
  1. Create a branch in docs. Update the last_updated column in the table above with the current date
  2. Submit a pull request

The below steps are only required if the headers of the file need to be changed. The Tuva Project does not store the contents of the terminology file in GitHub.

  1. Create a branch in The Tuva Project
  2. Copy and paste the updated header into the Admit type file
  3. Submit a pull request