W50.4 — Accidental scratch by another person
W50.4 is a non-billable header ICD-10-CM code for accidental scratch by another person. 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 W50
- A
- initial encounter
- D
- subsequent encounter
- S
- sequela
Inclusion terms
Alternative wordings a physician may use in the chart for this same code.
- Scratch by another person NOS
Risk adjustment
W50.4 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 W50.4 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 W50.4.
- Scratched by›person(s) (accidentally)
Code to one of these instead W50.4
3 child codes. Green means billable.
Related codes at this level
Codes that share W50. If W50.4 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.
Questions about W50.4
- Is W50.4 a billable ICD-10-CM code?
- No. W50.4 is a non-billable header code. Code to a higher level of specificity using one of its child codes.
- Where does W50.4 sit in the tabular list?
- External causes of morbidity (V00-Y99), in the block Exposure to animate mechanical forces (W50-W64).