As of October 2015, ICD-9 codes are no longer used for medical coding. Instead, use the following two equivalent ICD-10-CM codes, which are an approximate match to ICD-9 code 172.9:
Billable codes are sufficient justification for admission to an acute care hospital when used a principal diagnosis.
172.9 is a legacy non-billable code used to specify a medical diagnosis of melanoma of skin, site unspecified. This code was replaced on September 30, 2015 by its ICD-10 equivalent.
NEC "Not elsewhere classifiable" - This abbreviation in the Alphabetic Index represents "other specified". When a specific code is not available for a condition, the Alphabetic Index directs the coder to the "other specified” code in the Tabular List.
As of October 2015, ICD-9 codes are no longer used for medical coding. Instead, use this equivalent ICD-10-CM code, which is an exact match to ICD-9 code 172:
Non-Billable means the code is not sufficient justification for admission to an acute care hospital when used a principal diagnosis. Use a child code to capture more detail.
172.9 is a legacy non-billable code used to specify a medical diagnosis of melanoma of skin, site unspecified. This code was replaced on September 30, 2015 by its ICD-10 equivalent.
NEC "Not elsewhere classifiable" - This abbreviation in the Alphabetic Index represents "other specified". When a specific code is not available for a condition, the Alphabetic Index directs the coder to the "other specified” code in the Tabular List.