Is Q05.6 a billable ICD-10-CM code?

Yes. Q05.6 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.

Where does Q05.6 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 Q05.6?

Q05.6 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 Q05.6 (Q05) and apply to it just the same.

Q05.6

Q05.6 — Thoracic spina bifida without hydrocephalus

Billable / specific codeICD-10-CMPOA exempt

Q05.6 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code for thoracic spina bifida without hydrocephalus. It is valid for submission on a claim.

Inclusion terms

Alternative wordings a physician may use in the chart for this same code.

Dorsal spina bifida NOS
Thoracolumbar spina bifida NOS

Excludes1 inherited from the categories above Q05.6

These are not written on Q05.6, but they bind it: a note on a category applies to every code beneath it. Billing Q05.6 with anything listed here is a denial.

Written on Q05 — Spina bifida

Arnold-Chiari syndrome, type II (Q07.0-)
spina bifida occulta (Q76.0)

Other codes that can never be billed with Q05.6

These codes carry an Excludes1 note pointing at Q05.6. The conflict binds both ways, but ICD-10-CM only writes it down on one side — so you would not find this by reading Q05.6 alone.

G91Hydrocephalus
Q76.0Spina bifida occulta

Risk adjustment

Q05.6 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

Q05.6 is named in 15 Medicare coverage policies — 15 listing it as supporting medical necessity. Which of them applies to you depends on your Medicare contractor, and coverage genuinely differs by state.

A54095Billing and Coding: Nerve Conduction Studies and Electromyography
A54111Billing and Coding: Speech Language Pathology (SLP) Services: Communication Disorders
A54969Billing and Coding: Nerve Conduction Studies and Electromyography
A56619Billing and Coding: Nerve Conduction Studies and Electromyography

How Q05.6 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 Q05.6.

Spina bifida›dorsal
Spina bifida›thoracic
Spina bifida›thoracolumbar

Code history

Q05.6 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 Q05. If Q05.6 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.

Questions about Q05.6

Is Q05.6 a billable ICD-10-CM code?: Yes. Q05.6 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.
Where does Q05.6 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 Q05.6?: Q05.6 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 Q05.6 (Q05) and apply to it just the same.