About ICDcodes.org
A lookup built around the question a coder actually has: can I bill this code, and if not, what do I use instead?
Why this exists
Most ICD-10 lookups render the classification. They tell you that E11.9 means “Type 2 diabetes mellitus without complications” and stop there. But a coder already knows roughly what the code means — what they need to know is whether it will survive a claim.
That question depends on things the description does not say: whether the code is billable at all, whether a more specific code exists that the payer expects, which codes can never appear alongside it, and whether the code quietly changed in the most recent update. Those signals exist in the official files but are scattered across several of them. This site computes them and puts the answer at the top of every page.
Where the data comes from
Every code, description and instructional note is generated directly from the official ICD-10-CM release published by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics and CMS. The current build covers fiscal year 2027 — 98,403 codes, of which 74,879 are billable.
Nothing on this site is copied from another reference site, and no code descriptions are rewritten or paraphrased. The full list of source files and how they are processed is on the data sources page, and the method is documented in the editorial policy.
Who maintains it
What the site offers instead is provenance. Every factual statement on a code page is either reproduced verbatim from the official release or derived from it by a documented, deterministic rule that you can read and check:
- Descriptions, instructional notes and 7th-character definitions are printed exactly as CMS publishes them.
- Billable status comes from the flag in the official order file — it is not inferred.
- Change classifications are derived from the official addenda, and the derived totals are reconciled against the tallies CMS publishes in the same file.
- Judgement calls — such as flagging a code as “unspecified” — are labelled as derived signals, and the rule behind them is stated.
For a reference database, a verifiable chain back to the source document is a stronger guarantee than an author bio. Where the site makes an inference rather than reporting a fact, it says so.
What it will not tell you
- Whether a specific payer will reimburse a code. Billability is a property of the classification. Coverage is a property of the payer’s policy, and the two are not the same thing.
- Which code fits a particular patient. That depends on the provider’s documentation, which only you can read.
- Procedure or supply codes. This site covers ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes only. CPT is copyrighted by the American Medical Association and is not reproduced here.
Corrections
If a page disagrees with the official release, the official release is correct and the bug is ours. Please report it — data corrections are prioritised over everything else.