C43.9 — Malignant melanoma of skin, unspecified
C43.9 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code for malignant melanoma of skin, unspecified. It is valid for submission on a claim.
Inclusion terms
Alternative wordings a physician may use in the chart for this same code.
- Malignant melanoma of unspecified site of skin
- Melanoma (malignant) NOS
Risk adjustment
C43.9 risk-adjusts. Under the CMS-HCC V28 model it maps to this category:
- HCC 23 Prostate, Breast, and Other Cancers and Tumors0.186 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.
Medicare coverage
C43.9 is named in 58 Medicare coverage policies — 58 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 ™)
- A52450Billing and Coding: Paclitaxel (e.g., Taxol®/Abraxane ™)
- A52479Oral Anticancer Drugs - Policy Article
- A52479Oral Anticancer Drugs - Policy Article
How C43.9 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 C43.9.
- Melanoma(malignant)
- Melanoma›skin
- Melanoma›skin›skin NEC
Related codes at this level
Codes that share C43. If C43.9 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.
- C43.0Malignant melanoma of lip
- C43.1Malignant melanoma of eyelid, including canthus
- C43.2Malignant melanoma of ear and external auricular canal
- C43.3Malignant melanoma of other and unspecified parts of face
- C43.4Malignant melanoma of scalp and neck
- C43.5Malignant melanoma of trunk
- C43.6Malignant melanoma of upper limb, including shoulder
- C43.7Malignant melanoma of lower limb, including hip
- C43.8Malignant melanoma of overlapping sites of skin
Questions about C43.9
- Is C43.9 a billable ICD-10-CM code?
- Yes. C43.9 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.
- Where does C43.9 sit in the tabular list?
- Neoplasms (C00-D49), in the block Melanoma and other malignant neoplasms of skin (C43-C44).