J98.8 — Other specified respiratory disorders
J98.8 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code for other specified respiratory disorders. It is valid for submission on a claim.
Excludes1 inherited from the categories above J98.8
These are not written on J98.8, but they bind it: a note on a category applies to every code beneath it. Billing J98.8 with anything listed here is a denial.
Excludes2 inherited from the categories above J98.8
Also inherited, and the opposite of Excludes1: these conditions are not part of J98.8, but a patient can have both, so you may code both.
Risk adjustment
J98.8 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
J98.8 is named in 3 Medicare coverage policies — 3 listing it as supporting medical necessity. Which of them applies to you depends on your Medicare contractor, and coverage genuinely differs by state.
- A56717Billing and Coding: Respiratory Therapy (Respiratory Care)
- A56784Billing and Coding: Pulmonary Stress Testing
- A57224Billing and Coding: Respiratory Care
How J98.8 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 J98.8.
- Decompensation›respiratory
- Infection, infected, infective›respiratory NEC(tract)
- Inflammation, inflamed, inflammatory›chest
- Obstruction, obstructed, obstructive›airway
- Obstruction, obstructed, obstructive›respiratory
- Pneumatocele›tension
- Infection, infected, infective›respiratory NEC›chronic
- Infection, infected, infective›virus, viral NOS›chest
Code history
J98.8 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 J98. If J98.8 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.
Questions about J98.8
- Is J98.8 a billable ICD-10-CM code?
- Yes. J98.8 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.
- Where does J98.8 sit in the tabular list?
- Diseases of the respiratory system (J00-J99), in the block Other diseases of the respiratory system (J96-J99).
- What cannot be coded together with J98.8?
- J98.8 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 J98.8 (J98) and apply to it just the same.