Q45.9 — Congenital malformation of digestive system, unspecified
Q45.9 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code for congenital malformation of digestive system, unspecified. It is valid for submission on a claim.
Inclusion terms
Alternative wordings a physician may use in the chart for this same code.
- Congenital anomaly of digestive system
- Congenital deformity of digestive system
Excludes2 inherited from the categories above Q45.9
Also inherited, and the opposite of Excludes1: these conditions are not part of Q45.9, but a patient can have both, so you may code both.
Risk adjustment
Q45.9 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
Q45.9 is named in 1 Medicare coverage policy — 1 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
How Q45.9 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 Q45.9.
- Anomaly, anomalous›alimentary tract
- Anomaly, anomalous›digestive organ or tract(s)
- Anomaly, anomalous›gastrointestinal tract
- Anomaly, anomalous›mesentery
- Deformity›alimentary tract, congenital
- Deformity›digestive organ NOS
- Deformity›gastrointestinal tract NOS(congenital)
- Malformation›alimentary tract
Code history
Q45.9 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 Q45. If Q45.9 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.
Questions about Q45.9
- Is Q45.9 a billable ICD-10-CM code?
- Yes. Q45.9 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.
- Where does Q45.9 sit in the tabular list?
- Congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities (Q00-QA0), in the block Other congenital malformations of the digestive system (Q38-Q45).