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J02.0

J02.0Streptococcal pharyngitis

Billable / specific codeICD-10-CM

J02.0 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code for streptococcal pharyngitis. 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.

  • scarlet fever (A38.-)

Inclusion terms

Alternative wordings a physician may use in the chart for this same code.

  • Septic pharyngitis
  • Streptococcal sore throat

Other codes that can never be billed with J02.0

These codes carry an Excludes1 note pointing at J02.0. The conflict binds both ways, but ICD-10-CM only writes it down on one side — so you would not find this by reading J02.0 alone.

  • J03Acute tonsillitis
  • J06Acute upper respiratory infections of multiple and unspecified sites

Risk adjustment

J02.0 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.

How J02.0 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 J02.0.

  • Pharyngitisseptic
  • Pharyngitisstreptococcal
  • Disease, diseasedthroatseptic
  • Septicsorethroat
  • Sorethroatseptic
  • Sorethroatstreptococcal(ulcerative)
  • Ulcer, ulcerated, ulcerating, ulceration, ulcerativesore throatstreptococcal
  • Septicsorethroatstreptococcal

Related codes at this level

Codes that share J02. If J02.0 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.

Questions about J02.0

Is J02.0 a billable ICD-10-CM code?
Yes. J02.0 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.
Where does J02.0 sit in the tabular list?
Diseases of the respiratory system (J00-J99), in the block Acute upper respiratory infections (J00-J06).
ICD-10-CMFY2026-Apr· effective April 1, 2026

Loaded directly from the CMS/NCHS ICD-10-CM public-domain release — see data sources and our editorial policy. If this page disagrees with the CMS tabular list, this page is wrong. Reference information for professional coders; not medical or billing advice.