K50-K52 — Noninfective enteritis and colitis
ICD-10-CM codes K50-K52 cover noninfective enteritis and colitis, within diseases of the digestive system. The block holds 119 codes across 3 categories, of which 91 are billable and 28 are header codes that cannot be submitted on a claim.
Risk adjustment in K50-K52
0 codes in this block map to a CMS-HCC, which means the diagnosis carries a risk-adjustment payment when it is documented and coded. Under-coding here is money left on the table; over-coding here is what audits are for.
- HCC 81 Ulcerative Colitis
- HCC 80 Crohn's Disease (Regional Enteritis)
- HCC 78 Intestinal Obstruction/Perforation
What else to watch in K50-K52
- 9 codes are laterality-specific. They come in left and right pairs, and the pair is mutually exclusive on a single site: coding both without a bilateral code is a contradiction a scrubber should catch before the payer does.
- 91 codes are named in Medicare coverage policies. An LCD or NCD lists them as supporting medical necessity, or explicitly as not supporting it. Which applies depends on the MAC for your state.