E44.1 — Mild protein-calorie malnutrition
E44.1 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code for mild protein-calorie malnutrition. It is valid for submission on a claim.
Risk adjustment
E44.1 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.
Medicare coverage
E44.1 is named in 2 Medicare coverage policies — 2 listing it as supporting medical necessity. Which of them applies to you depends on your Medicare contractor, and coverage genuinely differs by state.
- A57063Billing and Coding: Diagnostic and Therapeutic Esophagogastroduodenoscopy
- A57755Billing and Coding: Vitamin B<sub>12</sub> Injections
How E44.1 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 E44.1.
- Malnutrition›degree›first
- Malnutrition›degree›mild(protein)
- Malnutrition›protein›calorie›mild
- Malnutrition›protein›energy›mild
Related codes at this level
Codes that share E44. If E44.1 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.
Questions about E44.1
- Is E44.1 a billable ICD-10-CM code?
- Yes. E44.1 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.
- Where does E44.1 sit in the tabular list?
- Endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases (E00-E89), in the block Malnutrition (E40-E46).