K52.9 — Noninfective gastroenteritis and colitis, unspecified
K52.9 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code for noninfective gastroenteritis and colitis, unspecified. It is valid for submission on a claim.
Excludes1 — never code together
These conditions cannot occur together. Billing both on the same encounter is a denial.
Inclusion terms
Alternative wordings a physician may use in the chart for this same code.
- Colitis NOS
- Enteritis NOS
- Gastroenteritis NOS
- Ileitis NOS
- Jejunitis NOS
- Sigmoiditis NOS
Other codes that can never be billed with K52.9
These codes carry an Excludes1 note pointing at K52.9. The conflict binds both ways, but ICD-10-CM only writes it down on one side — so you would not find this by reading K52.9 alone.
Risk adjustment
K52.9 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
K52.9 is named in 9 Medicare coverage policies — 9 listing it as supporting medical necessity. Which of them applies to you depends on your Medicare contractor, and coverage genuinely differs by state.
- A55937Billing and Coding: Diagnostic Colonoscopy
- A56389Billing and Coding: Upper Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and Visualization
- A56394Billing and Coding: Colonoscopy and Sigmoidoscopy-Diagnostic
- A56421Billing and Coding: CT of the Abdomen and Pelvis
How K52.9 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 K52.9.
- Cecitis
- Colitis(acute) (catarrhal) (chronic) (noninfective) (hemorrhagic)
- Enteritis(acute) (diarrheal) (hemorrhagic) (noninfective)
- Enterocolitis
- Gastroenteritis(acute) (chronic) (noninfectious)
- Gastroenteropathy
- Gastrojejunitis
- Ileitis(chronic) (noninfectious)
- Ileocolitis
- Sigmoiditis
- Colitis›noninfective
- Diarrhea, diarrheal›chronic(noninfectious)
Related codes at this level
Codes that share K52. If K52.9 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.
Questions about K52.9
- Is K52.9 a billable ICD-10-CM code?
- Yes. K52.9 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.
- Where does K52.9 sit in the tabular list?
- Diseases of the digestive system (K00-K95), in the block Noninfective enteritis and colitis (K50-K52).
- What cannot be coded together with K52.9?
- K52.9 carries an Excludes1 note, which means the conditions it lists can never be coded together with it on the same encounter.