A49.9
A49.9 — Bacterial infection, unspecified
Billable / specific codeICD-10-CM
A49.9 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code for bacterial infection, unspecified. It is valid for submission on a claim.
Excludes1 — never code together
These conditions cannot occur together. Billing both on the same encounter is a denial.
- bacteremia NOS (R78.81)
Risk adjustment
A49.9 does not map to an HCC and does not risk-adjust under CMS-HCC V28. That is normal — most ICD-10 codes do not. It still needs to be coded correctly; it just will not move a RAF score.
How A49.9 is indexed
Coders do not find codes by browsing the tabular list — they look them up in the alphabetic index, under the word the physician wrote. These are the index entries that lead here, so you can see which chart wordings map to A49.9.
- Disease, diseased›bacterial
- Infection, infected, infective›Bacillus
- Infection, infected, infective›bacterial NOS
- Infection, infected, infective›gram-negative bacilli NOS
- Arthritis, arthritic›in›bacterial disease
Related codes at this level
Codes that share A49. If A49.9 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.
Questions about A49.9
- Is A49.9 a billable ICD-10-CM code?
- Yes. A49.9 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.
- Where does A49.9 sit in the tabular list?
- Certain infectious and parasitic diseases (A00-B99), in the block Other bacterial diseases (A30-A49).
- What cannot be coded together with A49.9?
- A49.9 carries an Excludes1 note, which means the conditions it lists can never be coded together with it on the same encounter.