X18 — Contact with other hot metals
X18 is a non-billable header ICD-10-CM code for contact with other hot metals. 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 code X18
- A
- initial encounter
- D
- subsequent encounter
- S
- sequela
Inclusion terms
Alternative wordings a physician may use in the chart for this same code.
- Contact with liquid metal
Other codes that can never be billed with X18
These codes carry an Excludes1 note pointing at X18. The conflict binds both ways, but ICD-10-CM only writes it down on one side — so you would not find this by reading X18 alone.
Risk adjustment
X18 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 X18 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 X18.
- Burn, burned, burning›metal NEC(hot) (liquid) (molten)
- Scald, scalding›metal NEC(molten) (liquid) (hot)
- Burn, burned, burning›hot›metal NEC(molten) (liquid)
- Burn, burned, burning›substance NEC›molten(metal)
- Contact›with›metal, hot NEC(liquid) (molten)
- Contact›with›hot›metal NEC(molten) (liquid)
- Contact›with›substance, hot NEC›molten(metal)
Code to one of these instead X18
3 child codes. Green means billable.
Questions about X18
- Is X18 a billable ICD-10-CM code?
- No. X18 is a non-billable header code. Code to a higher level of specificity using one of its child codes.
- Where does X18 sit in the tabular list?
- External causes of morbidity (V00-Y99), in the block Contact with heat and hot substances (X10-X19).