Is R83.5 a billable ICD-10-CM code?

Yes. R83.5 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.

Where does R83.5 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 other body fluids, substances and tissues, without diagnosis (R83-R89).

What cannot be coded together with R83.5?

R83.5 carries an Excludes1 note, which means the conditions it lists can never be coded together with it on the same encounter.

R83.5

R83.5 — Abnormal microbiological findings in cerebrospinal fluid

Billable / specific codeICD-10-CM

R83.5 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code for abnormal microbiological findings in cerebrospinal fluid. 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.

colonization status (Z22.-)

Inclusion terms

Alternative wordings a physician may use in the chart for this same code.

Positive culture findings in cerebrospinal fluid

Risk adjustment

R83.5 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

R83.5 is named in 1 Medicare coverage policy — 1 listing it as supporting medical necessity. Which of them applies to you depends on your Medicare contractor, and coverage genuinely differs by state.

A57204Billing and Coding: MRI and CT Scans of the Head and Neck

How R83.5 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 R83.5.

Abnormal, abnormality, abnormalities›cerebrospinal fluid›microbiology
Positive›culture›cerebrospinal fluid

Related codes at this level

Codes that share R83. If R83.5 is not quite right, the correct code is usually one of these.

Questions about R83.5

Is R83.5 a billable ICD-10-CM code?: Yes. R83.5 is a billable, specific ICD-10-CM code and is valid for submission on a claim.
Where does R83.5 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 other body fluids, substances and tissues, without diagnosis (R83-R89).
What cannot be coded together with R83.5?: R83.5 carries an Excludes1 note, which means the conditions it lists can never be coded together with it on the same encounter.