C16.9 — Malignant neoplasm of stomach, unspecified
C16.9 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code for malignant neoplasm of stomach, unspecified. It is valid for submission on a claim.
Inclusion terms
Alternative wordings a physician may use in the chart for this same code.
- Gastric cancer NOS
Excludes2 inherited from the categories above C16.9
Also inherited, and the opposite of Excludes1: these conditions are not part of C16.9, but a patient can have both, so you may code both.
Written on C16 — Malignant neoplasm of stomach
- malignant carcinoid tumor of the stomach (C7A.092)
Risk adjustment
C16.9 risk-adjusts. Under the CMS-HCC V28 model it maps to this category:
- HCC 20 Lung and Other Severe Cancers1.136 RAF
Coefficient shown for the Community Non-dual Aged segment. A higher HCC in the same hierarchy will suppress this one, so capturing it does not always add score. Look up the whole chart to see which of its HCCs the hierarchy would zero.
Medicare coverage
C16.9 is named in 62 Medicare coverage policies — 62 listing it as supporting medical necessity. Which of them applies to you depends on your Medicare contractor, and coverage genuinely differs by state.
- A52450Billing and Coding: Paclitaxel (e.g., Taxol®/Abraxane ™)
- A52479Oral Anticancer Drugs - Policy Article
- A52479Oral Anticancer Drugs - Policy Article
- A52479Oral Anticancer Drugs - Policy Article
How C16.9 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 C16.9.
- Leather bottle stomach
- Linitis plastica(gastric)
- Adenocarcinoma›diffuse type›unspecified site
- Adenocarcinoma›intestinal type›unspecified site
- Carcinoma›diffuse type›unspecified site
- Carcinoma›intestinal type›unspecified site
Code history
C16.9 has not changed since FY2024 — no addition, revision or deletion across the FY2024–FY2027 ICD-10-CM releases.
Related codes at this level
Codes that share C16. If C16.9 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.
- C16.0Malignant neoplasm of cardia
- C16.1Malignant neoplasm of fundus of stomach
- C16.2Malignant neoplasm of body of stomach
- C16.3Malignant neoplasm of pyloric antrum
- C16.4Malignant neoplasm of pylorus
- C16.5Malignant neoplasm of lesser curvature of stomach, unspecified
- C16.6Malignant neoplasm of greater curvature of stomach, unspecified
- C16.8Malignant neoplasm of overlapping sites of stomach
Questions about C16.9
- Is C16.9 a billable ICD-10-CM code?
- Yes. C16.9 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.
- Where does C16.9 sit in the tabular list?
- Neoplasms (C00-D49), in the block Malignant neoplasms of digestive organs (C15-C26).