J44.9Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, unspecified

J44.9 is the ICD-10-CM diagnosis code for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, unspecified. It belongs to category J44 (other chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), block J40-J4B (chronic lower respiratory diseases) and chapter 10 (diseases of the respiratory system). It is billable, so it can be reported on its own for dates of service from October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027.

Within J44, choose J44.9 (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, unspecified) only when documentation doesn't support a more specific option: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with (acute) lower respiratory infection (J44.0), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with (acute) exacerbation (J44.1) and other specified chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (J44.8).

The conditions in its Excludes2 note aren't part of J44.9, but may be coded alongside it if the patient has both: lung diseases due to external agents (J60-J70).

It is not a CC or MCC, so as a secondary diagnosis it doesn't change the MS-DRG severity level.

In MS-DRG v44.0, it is part of the grouping logic for DRG 190 (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease with MCC, relative weight 1.0748), DRG 191 (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease with CC, relative weight 0.8261) and DRG 192 (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease without CC/MCC, relative weight 0.6288), in MDC 04 (Diseases and Disorders of the Respiratory System), as a principal or secondary diagnosis. The DRG a claim lands in depends on the principal diagnosis, procedures and any CC/MCC secondary diagnoses.

It has been part of ICD-10-CM since the code set took effect on October 1, 2015 and hasn't changed since.

Before ICD-10, this condition was coded in ICD-9-CM as 491.20 (obstructive chronic bronchitis without exacerbation), 493.20 (chronic obstructive asthma, unspecified) and 496 (chronic airway obstruction, not elsewhere classified).