R78.89 — Finding of other specified substances, not normally found in blood
R78.89 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code for finding of other specified substances, not normally found in blood. It is valid for submission on a claim.
Inclusion terms
Alternative wordings a physician may use in the chart for this same code.
- Finding of abnormal level of lithium in blood
Other codes that can never be billed with R78.89
These codes carry an Excludes1 note pointing at R78.89. The conflict binds both ways, but ICD-10-CM only writes it down on one side — so you would not find this by reading R78.89 alone.
- R79.0Abnormal level of blood mineral
Risk adjustment
R78.89 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
R78.89 is named in 4 Medicare coverage policies — 4 listing it as supporting medical necessity. Which of them applies to you depends on your Medicare contractor, and coverage genuinely differs by state.
- A56686Billing and Coding: HbA1c
- A57063Billing and Coding: Diagnostic and Therapeutic Esophagogastroduodenoscopy
- A57189Billing and Coding: Serum Magnesium
- A59186Billing and Coding: Magnesium
How R78.89 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 R78.89.
- Abnormal, abnormality, abnormalities›blood level›lithium
- Findings, abnormal, inconclusive, without diagnosis›in blood›lithium(abnormal level)
- Findings, abnormal, inconclusive, without diagnosis›in blood›specified substance NEC
Related codes at this level
Codes that share R78.8. If R78.89 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.
Questions about R78.89
- Is R78.89 a billable ICD-10-CM code?
- Yes. R78.89 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.
- Where does R78.89 sit in the tabular list?
- Symptoms, signs and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings, not elsewhere classified (R00-R99), in the block Abnormal findings on examination of blood, without diagnosis (R70-R79).