R10.0 — Acute abdomen
R10.0 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code for acute abdomen. It is valid for submission on a claim.
Excludes1 — never code together
These conditions cannot occur together. Billing both on the same encounter is a denial.
Inclusion terms
Alternative wordings a physician may use in the chart for this same code.
- Severe abdominal pain (generalized) (with abdominal rigidity)
Other codes that can never be billed with R10.0
These codes carry an Excludes1 note pointing at R10.0. The conflict binds both ways, but ICD-10-CM only writes it down on one side — so you would not find this by reading R10.0 alone.
Risk adjustment
R10.0 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
R10.0 is named in 18 Medicare coverage policies — 18 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
- A56580Billing and Coding: Computerized Axial Tomography (CT), Thorax
- A56632Billing and Coding: Colonoscopy/Sigmoidoscopy/Proctosigmoidoscopy
- A57063Billing and Coding: Diagnostic and Therapeutic Esophagogastroduodenoscopy
How R10.0 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 R10.0.
- Abdomen, abdominal›acute
- Acute›abdomen
- Crisis›abdomen
- Syndrome›acute abdominal
- Pain›abdominal›severe with abdominal rigidity
- Rigid, rigidity›abdominal›with severe abdominal pain
- Syndrome›abdominal›acute
- Pain›abdominal›generalized›with acute abdomen
Related codes at this level
Codes that share R10. If R10.0 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.
Questions about R10.0
- Is R10.0 a billable ICD-10-CM code?
- Yes. R10.0 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.
- Where does R10.0 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 digestive system and abdomen (R10-R19).
- What cannot be coded together with R10.0?
- R10.0 carries an Excludes1 note, which means the conditions it lists can never be coded together with it on the same encounter.