W26.0 — Contact with knife
W26.0 is a non-billable header ICD-10-CM code for contact with knife. It cannot be billed on its own: choose one of the more specific child codes below. This code also requires a 7th character before it is complete.
This code requires a 7th character
The appropriate 7th character is to be added to each code from category W26
- A
- initial encounter
- D
- subsequent encounter
- S
- sequela
Excludes1 — never code together
These conditions cannot occur together. Billing both on the same encounter is a denial.
- contact with electric knife (W29.1)
Risk adjustment
W26.0 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.
How W26.0 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 W26.0.
- Contact›with›knife
Code to one of these instead W26.0
3 child codes. Green means billable.
Related codes at this level
Codes that share W26. If W26.0 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.
Questions about W26.0
- Is W26.0 a billable ICD-10-CM code?
- No. W26.0 is a non-billable header code. Code to a higher level of specificity using one of its child codes.
- Where does W26.0 sit in the tabular list?
- External causes of morbidity (V00-Y99), in the block Exposure to inanimate mechanical forces (W20-W49).
- What cannot be coded together with W26.0?
- W26.0 carries an Excludes1 note, which means the conditions it lists can never be coded together with it on the same encounter.