J45.90 — Unspecified asthma
J45.90 is a non-billable header ICD-10-CM code for unspecified asthma. It cannot be billed on its own: choose one of the more specific child codes below.
Inclusion terms
Alternative wordings a physician may use in the chart for this same code.
- Asthmatic bronchitis NOS
- Childhood asthma NOS
- Late onset asthma
Excludes1 inherited from the categories above J45.90
These are not written on J45.90, but they bind it: a note on a category applies to every code beneath it. Billing J45.90 with anything listed here is a denial.
Excludes2 inherited from the categories above J45.90
Also inherited, and the opposite of Excludes1: these conditions are not part of J45.90, but a patient can have both, so you may code both.
Other codes that can never be billed with J45.90
These codes carry an Excludes1 note pointing at J45.90. The conflict binds both ways, but ICD-10-CM only writes it down on one side — so you would not find this by reading J45.90 alone.
Risk adjustment
J45.90 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.
Code history
J45.90 has not changed since FY2024 — no addition, revision or deletion across the three most recent ICD-10-CM releases.
Code to one of these instead J45.90
3 child codes. Green means billable.
Related codes at this level
Codes that share J45.9. If J45.90 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.
Questions about J45.90
- Is J45.90 a billable ICD-10-CM code?
- No. J45.90 is a non-billable header code. Code to a higher level of specificity using one of its child codes.
- Where does J45.90 sit in the tabular list?
- Diseases of the respiratory system (J00-J99), in the block Chronic lower respiratory diseases (J40-J4A).
- What cannot be coded together with J45.90?
- J45.90 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 J45.90 (J45) and apply to it just the same.