F84.0 — Autistic disorder
F84.0 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code for autistic disorder. 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.
- Asperger's syndrome (F84.5)
Inclusion terms
Alternative wordings a physician may use in the chart for this same code.
- Autism spectrum disorder
- Infantile autism
- Infantile psychosis
- Kanner's syndrome
Other codes that can never be billed with F84.0
These codes carry an Excludes1 note pointing at F84.0. The conflict binds both ways, but ICD-10-CM only writes it down on one side — so you would not find this by reading F84.0 alone.
Risk adjustment
F84.0 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
F84.0 is named in 17 Medicare coverage policies — 16 listing it as supporting medical necessity, and 1 listing it as NOT covered. Which of them applies to you depends on your Medicare contractor, and coverage genuinely differs by state.
- A52434Health and Behavior Assessment/Intervention – Medical Policy Articlenot covered
- A56614Billing and Coding: Psychiatric Inpatient Hospitalization
- A56756Billing and Coding: Home Health - Psychiatric Care
- A56865Billing and Coding: Psychiatric Inpatient Hospitalization
How F84.0 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 F84.0.
- Autism, autistic(childhood) (infantile)
- Autism, autistic›spectrum disorder
- Disorder›autism spectrum
- Disorder›autistic
- Psychosis, psychotic›childhood
- Psychosis, psychotic›infantile
- Syndrome›Kanner's(autism)
- Disorder›semantic pragmatic›with autism
Related codes at this level
Codes that share F84. If F84.0 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.
Questions about F84.0
- Is F84.0 a billable ICD-10-CM code?
- Yes. F84.0 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.
- Where does F84.0 sit in the tabular list?
- Mental, Behavioral and Neurodevelopmental disorders (F01-F99), in the block Pervasive and specific developmental disorders (F80-F89).
- What cannot be coded together with F84.0?
- F84.0 carries an Excludes1 note, which means the conditions it lists can never be coded together with it on the same encounter.