R26.0 — Ataxic gait
R26.0 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code for ataxic gait. It is valid for submission on a claim.
Inclusion terms
Alternative wordings a physician may use in the chart for this same code.
- Staggering gait
Other codes that can never be billed with R26.0
These codes carry an Excludes1 note pointing at R26.0. The conflict binds both ways, but ICD-10-CM only writes it down on one side — so you would not find this by reading R26.0 alone.
- R27Other lack of coordination
Risk adjustment
R26.0 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
R26.0 is named in 31 Medicare coverage policies — 31 listing it as supporting medical necessity. Which of them applies to you depends on your Medicare contractor, and coverage genuinely differs by state.
- A52992Billing and Coding: Non-Invasive Cerebrovascular Arterial Studies
- A52992Billing and Coding: Non-Invasive Cerebrovascular Arterial Studies
- A53057Billing and Coding: Home Health Occupational Therapy
- A53058Billing and Coding: Home Health Physical Therapy
How R26.0 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 R26.0.
- Staggering gait
- Ataxia, ataxy, ataxic›gait
- Gait abnormality›ataxic
- Gait abnormality›staggering
Related codes at this level
Codes that share R26. If R26.0 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.
Questions about R26.0
- Is R26.0 a billable ICD-10-CM code?
- Yes. R26.0 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.
- Where does R26.0 sit in the tabular list?
- Symptoms, signs and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings, not elsewhere classified (R00-R99), in the block Symptoms and signs involving the nervous and musculoskeletal systems (R25-R29).