F98.8 — Other specified behavioral and emotional disorders with onset usually occurring in childhood and adolescence
F98.8 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code for other specified behavioral and emotional disorders with onset usually occurring in childhood and adolescence. It is valid for submission on a claim.
Inclusion terms
Alternative wordings a physician may use in the chart for this same code.
- Excessive masturbation
- Nail-biting
- Nose-picking
- Thumb-sucking
Other codes that can never be billed with F98.8
These codes carry an Excludes1 note pointing at F98.8. The conflict binds both ways, but ICD-10-CM only writes it down on one side — so you would not find this by reading F98.8 alone.
- F42.4Excoriation (skin-picking) disorder
Risk adjustment
F98.8 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
F98.8 is named in 10 Medicare coverage policies — 9 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
- A56685Billing and Coding: Partial Hospitalization Programs
- A56850Billing and Coding: Psychiatric Partial Hospitalization Programs
- A56937Billing and Coding: Psychiatry and Psychology Services
How F98.8 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 F98.8.
- Masturbation(excessive)
- Nose-picking
- Onanism(excessive)
- Onychophagia
- Picking, nose
- Sucking thumb, child(excessive)
- Attention›deficit disorder or syndrome
- Deficiency, deficient›attention(disorder) (syndrome)
- Disorder›attention-deficit without hyperactivity(adolescent) (adult) (child)
- Impediment, speech›psychogenic(childhood)
- Nail›biting
- Thumb›sucking(child problem)
Related codes at this level
Codes that share F98. If F98.8 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.
- F98.0Enuresis not due to a substance or known physiological condition
- F98.1Encopresis not due to a substance or known physiological condition
- F98.2Other feeding disorders of infancy and childhood
- F98.3Pica of infancy and childhood
- F98.4Stereotyped movement disorders
- F98.5Adult onset fluency disorder
- F98.9Unspecified behavioral and emotional disorders with onset usually occurring in childhood and adolescence
Questions about F98.8
- Is F98.8 a billable ICD-10-CM code?
- Yes. F98.8 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.
- Where does F98.8 sit in the tabular list?
- Mental, Behavioral and Neurodevelopmental disorders (F01-F99), in the block Behavioral and emotional disorders with onset usually occurring in childhood and adolescence (F90-F98).