J03.90 — Acute tonsillitis, unspecified
J03.90 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code for acute tonsillitis, unspecified. It is valid for submission on a claim.
Excludes1 inherited from the categories above J03.90
These are not written on J03.90, but they bind it: a note on a category applies to every code beneath it. Billing J03.90 with anything listed here is a denial.
Written on J03.9 — Acute tonsillitis, unspecified
Excludes2 inherited from the categories above J03.90
Also inherited, and the opposite of Excludes1: these conditions are not part of J03.90, but a patient can have both, so you may code both.
Other codes that can never be billed with J03.90
These codes carry an Excludes1 note pointing at J03.90. The conflict binds both ways, but ICD-10-CM only writes it down on one side — so you would not find this by reading J03.90 alone.
- J36Peritonsillar abscess
Risk adjustment
J03.90 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 J03.90 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 J03.90.
- Tonsillitis(acute) (catarrhal) (croupous) (follicular) (gangrenous) (infective) (lacunar) (lingual) (malignant) (membranous) (parenchymatous) (phlegmonous) (pseudomembranous) (purulent) (septic) (subacute) (suppurative) (toxic) (ulcerative) (vesicular) (viral)
- Adenoiditis›acute
- Infection, infected, infective›adenoid(and tonsil)
Code history
J03.90 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 J03.9. If J03.90 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.
Questions about J03.90
- Is J03.90 a billable ICD-10-CM code?
- Yes. J03.90 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.
- Where does J03.90 sit in the tabular list?
- Diseases of the respiratory system (J00-J99), in the block Acute upper respiratory infections (J00-J06).
- What cannot be coded together with J03.90?
- J03.90 carries Excludes1 notes, which means the conditions they list can never be coded together with it on the same encounter. Some are written on the categories above J03.90 (J03.9, J03) and apply to it just the same.