R62.51Failure to thrive (child)

R62.51 is the ICD-10-CM diagnosis code for failure to thrive (child). It belongs to category R62 (lack of expected normal physiological development in childhood and adults), block R50-R69 (general symptoms and signs) and chapter 18 (symptoms, signs and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings, not elsewhere classified). It is billable, so it can be reported on its own for dates of service from October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027.

Within R62.5 (other and unspecified lack of expected normal physiological development in childhood), R62.51 is specifically for failure to thrive (child). Related codes cover unspecified lack of expected normal physiological development in childhood (R62.50), short stature (child) (R62.52) and other lack of expected normal physiological development in childhood (R62.59).

Don't report R62.51 together with the conditions in its Excludes1 note: failure to thrive in child under 28 days old (P92.6).

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 640 (Miscellaneous Disorders of Nutrition, Metabolism, Fluids and Electrolytes with MCC, relative weight 1.3395) and DRG 641 (Miscellaneous Disorders of Nutrition, Metabolism, Fluids and Electrolytes without MCC, relative weight 0.7865), in MDC 10 (Endocrine, Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases and Disorders), as a principal or secondary diagnosis. The DRG a claim lands in depends on the principal diagnosis, procedures and any CC/MCC secondary diagnoses.

The Medicare Code Editor expects this diagnosis only for patients age 0 through 17; other ages trigger an age-conflict edit.

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 783.41 (failure to thrive).