H49.9 — Unspecified paralytic strabismus
H49.9 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code for unspecified paralytic strabismus. It is valid for submission on a claim.
Risk adjustment
H49.9 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
H49.9 is named in 20 Medicare coverage policies — 20 listing it as supporting medical necessity. Which of them applies to you depends on your Medicare contractor, and coverage genuinely differs by state.
- A56612Billing and Coding: CT of the Head
- A56631Billing and Coding: Thoracic Aortography and Carotid, Vertebral, and Subclavian Angiography
- A56729Billing and Coding: Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Head and Neck
- A56799Billing and Coding: Visual Fields Testing
How H49.9 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 H49.9.
- Paralysis, paralytic›eye muscle(extrinsic)
- Paralysis, paralytic›ocular
- Paralysis, paralytic›rectus muscle(eye)
- Paresis›extrinsic muscle, eye
- Strabismus›paralytic
- Paralysis, paralytic›muscle, muscular NEC›eye(extrinsic)
Related codes at this level
Codes that share H49. If H49.9 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.
Questions about H49.9
- Is H49.9 a billable ICD-10-CM code?
- Yes. H49.9 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.
- Where does H49.9 sit in the tabular list?
- Diseases of the eye and adnexa (H00-H59), in the block Disorders of ocular muscles, binocular movement, accommodation and refraction (H49-H52).