Is Q01.8 a billable ICD-10-CM code?

Yes. Q01.8 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.

Where does Q01.8 sit in the tabular list?

Congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities (Q00-QA0), in the block Congenital malformations of the nervous system (Q00-Q07).

What cannot be coded together with Q01.8?

Q01.8 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 Q01.8 (Q01) and apply to it just the same.

Q01.8

Q01.8 — Encephalocele of other sites

Billable / specific codeICD-10-CMPOA exempt

Q01.8 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code for encephalocele of other sites. It is valid for submission on a claim.

Excludes1 inherited from the categories above Q01.8

These are not written on Q01.8, but they bind it: a note on a category applies to every code beneath it. Billing Q01.8 with anything listed here is a denial.

Written on Q01 — Encephalocele

Meckel-Gruber syndrome (Q61.9)

Other codes that can never be billed with Q01.8

These codes carry an Excludes1 note pointing at Q01.8. The conflict binds both ways, but ICD-10-CM only writes it down on one side — so you would not find this by reading Q01.8 alone.

Q75Other congenital malformations of skull and face bones
Q07.0Arnold-Chiari syndrome

Risk adjustment

Q01.8 risk-adjusts. Under the CMS-HCC V28 model it maps to this category:

HCC 182 Spinal Cord Disorders/Injuries0.478 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

Q01.8 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.

A54111Billing and Coding: Speech Language Pathology (SLP) Services: Communication Disorders
A56612Billing and Coding: CT of the Head
A57204Billing and Coding: MRI and CT Scans of the Head and Neck

How Q01.8 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 Q01.8.

Encephalocele›specified NEC
Hernia, hernial›cerebral, congenital›endaural
Hernia, hernial›foramen magnum›congenital

Code history

Q01.8 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 Q01. If Q01.8 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.

Questions about Q01.8

Is Q01.8 a billable ICD-10-CM code?: Yes. Q01.8 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.
Where does Q01.8 sit in the tabular list?: Congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities (Q00-QA0), in the block Congenital malformations of the nervous system (Q00-Q07).
What cannot be coded together with Q01.8?: Q01.8 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 Q01.8 (Q01) and apply to it just the same.