I72.6 — Aneurysm of vertebral artery
I72.6 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code for aneurysm of vertebral artery. It is valid for submission on a claim.
Excludes2 — not included here, but may coexist
The excluded condition is not part of this code, but a patient can have both. You may code both.
- dissection of vertebral artery (I77.74)
Excludes2 inherited from the categories above I72.6
Also inherited, and the opposite of Excludes1: these conditions are not part of I72.6, but a patient can have both, so you may code both.
Written on I72 — Other aneurysm
- acquired aneurysm (I77.0)
- aneurysm (of) aorta (I71.-)
- aneurysm (of) arteriovenous NOS (Q27.3-)
- carotid artery dissection (I77.71)
- cerebral (nonruptured) aneurysm (I67.1)
- coronary aneurysm (I25.4)
- coronary artery dissection (I25.42)
- dissection of artery NEC (I77.79)
- dissection of precerebral artery, congenital (nonruptured) (Q28.1)
- heart aneurysm (I25.3)
- iliac artery dissection (I77.72)
- precerebral artery, congential (nonruptured) (Q28.1)
- pulmonary artery aneurysm (I28.1)
- renal artery dissection (I77.73)
- retinal aneurysm (H35.0)
- ruptured cerebral aneurysm (I60.7)
- varicose aneurysm (I77.0)
- vertebral artery dissection (I77.74)
Risk adjustment
I72.6 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
I72.6 is named in 16 Medicare coverage policies — 16 listing it as supporting medical necessity. Which of them applies to you depends on your Medicare contractor, and coverage genuinely differs by state.
- A52850Billing and Coding: Cardiac Catheterization and Coronary Angiography
- A52992Billing and Coding: Non-Invasive Cerebrovascular Arterial Studies
- A56580Billing and Coding: Computerized Axial Tomography (CT), Thorax
- A56612Billing and Coding: CT of the Head
How I72.6 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 I72.6.
- Aneurysm›vertebral artery
Code history
I72.6 has not changed since FY2024 — no addition, revision or deletion across the three most recent ICD-10-CM releases.
Related codes at this level
Codes that share I72. If I72.6 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.
Questions about I72.6
- Is I72.6 a billable ICD-10-CM code?
- Yes. I72.6 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.
- Where does I72.6 sit in the tabular list?
- Diseases of the circulatory system (I00-I99), in the block Diseases of arteries, arterioles and capillaries (I70-I79).