F84.0 vs R47
F84.0 and R47 can never be reported together. ICD-10-CM declares them mutually exclusive with an Excludes1 note, meaning the two conditions cannot occur in the same patient — so exactly one of them is correct for any given encounter.
The official note, declared on R47
autism (F84.0)
F84.0
Autistic disorder
Billable
- Chapter 5
- Mental, Behavioral and Neurodevelopmental disorders
- Section
- F80-F89
Use when the record says
- Autism spectrum disorder
- Infantile autism
- Infantile psychosis
- Kanner's syndrome
Indexed under
- Autism, autistic (childhood) (infantile)
- Autism, autistic › spectrum disorder (childhood) (infantile)
- Disorder › autistic (of)
- Disorder › autism spectrum (of)
- Psychosis, psychotic › childhood
R47
Speech disturbances, not elsewhere classified
Not billable
- Chapter 18
- Symptoms, signs and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings, not elsewhere classified
- Section
- R47-R49
These two codes sit in different chapters of the Tabular List, which is usually the clearest signal that they describe different underlying processes rather than different degrees of the same one.
Excludes1 is not always absolute: where two conditions covered by the note are genuinely unrelated, CMS guidance permits reporting both. Document the reasoning rather than assuming it. More on Excludes1 vs Excludes2 · FY2027