K72.91 — Hepatic failure, unspecified with coma
K72.91 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code for hepatic failure, unspecified with coma. It is valid for submission on a claim.
Inclusion terms
Alternative wordings a physician may use in the chart for this same code.
- Hepatic coma NOS
Excludes1 inherited from the categories above K72.91
These are not written on K72.91, but they bind it: a note on a category applies to every code beneath it. Billing K72.91 with anything listed here is a denial.
Excludes2 inherited from the categories above K72.91
Also inherited, and the opposite of Excludes1: these conditions are not part of K72.91, but a patient can have both, so you may code both.
Other codes that can never be billed with K72.91
These codes carry an Excludes1 note pointing at K72.91. The conflict binds both ways, but ICD-10-CM only writes it down on one side — so you would not find this by reading K72.91 alone.
Risk adjustment
K72.91 risk-adjusts. Under the CMS-HCC V28 model it maps to this category:
- HCC 63 Chronic Liver Failure/End-Stage Liver Disorders0.962 RAF
Coefficient shown for the Community Non-dual Aged segment. A higher HCC in the same hierarchy will suppress this one, so capturing it does not always add score.
Medicare coverage
K72.91 is named in 5 Medicare coverage policies — 5 listing it as supporting medical necessity. Which of them applies to you depends on your Medicare contractor, and coverage genuinely differs by state.
- A56421Billing and Coding: CT of the Abdomen and Pelvis
- A56500Billing and Coding: Cardiac Catheterization and Coronary Angiography
- A56612Billing and Coding: CT of the Head
- A56669Billing and Coding: Hospice - Liver Disease
How K72.91 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 K72.91.
- Atrophy, atrophic›liver›with coma
- Failure, failed›hepatic›with coma
- Hepatitis›malignant NEC›with coma
- Impaired, impairment›liver›with coma
- Jaundice›malignant›with coma
Code history
K72.91 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 K72.9. If K72.91 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.
Questions about K72.91
- Is K72.91 a billable ICD-10-CM code?
- Yes. K72.91 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.
- Where does K72.91 sit in the tabular list?
- Diseases of the digestive system (K00-K95), in the block Diseases of liver (K70-K77).
- What cannot be coded together with K72.91?
- K72.91 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 K72.91 (K72) and apply to it just the same.