Q26.8 — Other congenital malformations of great veins
Q26.8 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code for other congenital malformations of great veins. It is valid for submission on a claim.
Inclusion terms
Alternative wordings a physician may use in the chart for this same code.
- Absence of vena cava (inferior) (superior)
- Azygos continuation of inferior vena cava
- Persistent left posterior cardinal vein
- Scimitar syndrome
Risk adjustment
Q26.8 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
Q26.8 is named in 20 Medicare coverage policies — 20 listing it as supporting medical necessity. Which of them applies to you depends on your Medicare contractor, and coverage genuinely differs by state.
- A52868Billing and Coding: Transesophageal Echocardiography (TEE)
- A54111Billing and Coding: Speech Language Pathology (SLP) Services: Communication Disorders
- A56414Billing and Coding: Endovenous Stenting
- A56451Billing and Coding: Cardiac Computed Tomography (CCT) and Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography (CCTA)
How Q26.8 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 Q26.8.
- Scimitar syndrome
- Absence›superior vena cava, congenital
- Absence›vena cava, congenital(inferior) (superior)
- Agenesis›vena cava(inferior) (superior)
- Anomaly, anomalous›venous return
- Atresia, atretic›vena cava(inferior) (superior)
- Azygos›continuation inferior vena cava
- Hypoplasia, hypoplastic›vena cava(inferior) (superior)
- Syndrome›scimitar
- Absence›vein congenital NEC›great
- Agenesis›vein›great NEC
- Atresia, atretic›vein NEC›great
Related codes at this level
Codes that share Q26. If Q26.8 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.
- Q26.0Congenital stenosis of vena cava
- Q26.1Persistent left superior vena cava
- Q26.2Total anomalous pulmonary venous connection
- Q26.3Partial anomalous pulmonary venous connection
- Q26.4Anomalous pulmonary venous connection, unspecified
- Q26.5Anomalous portal venous connection
- Q26.6Portal vein-hepatic artery fistula
- Q26.9Congenital malformation of great vein, unspecified
Questions about Q26.8
- Is Q26.8 a billable ICD-10-CM code?
- Yes. Q26.8 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.
- Where does Q26.8 sit in the tabular list?
- Congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities (Q00-QA0), in the block Congenital malformations of the circulatory system (Q20-Q28).