POA Exempt: Congenital malformations of the nervous system (Q00-Q07) ICD-10-CM
The 45 ICD-10-CM codes in this range are exempt from Present on Admission reporting for fiscal year 2026. Hospitals assign no POA indicator for them on inpatient claims: the codes describe circumstances, such as pre-existing conditions or the cause of an injury, where asking whether the condition was present at admission adds no information.
Exempt Codes in This Range 45 codes · 8 categories
Q00 Anencephaly and similar malformations3 codes
Q01 Encephalocele5 codes
Q02 Microcephaly1 code
- Q02 Microcephaly
Q03 Congenital hydrocephalus4 codes
Q04 Other congenital malformations of brain9 codes
- Q04.0 Congenital malformations of corpus callosum
- Q04.1 Arhinencephaly
- Q04.2 Holoprosencephaly
- Q04.3 Other reduction deformities of brain
- Q04.4 Septo-optic dysplasia of brain
- Q04.5 Megalencephaly
- Q04.6 Congenital cerebral cysts
- Q04.8 Other specified congenital malformations of brain
- Q04.9 Congenital malformation of brain, unspecified
Q05 Spina bifida10 codes
- Q05.0 Cervical spina bifida with hydrocephalus
- Q05.1 Thoracic spina bifida with hydrocephalus
- Q05.2 Lumbar spina bifida with hydrocephalus
- Q05.3 Sacral spina bifida with hydrocephalus
- Q05.4 Unspecified spina bifida with hydrocephalus
- Q05.5 Cervical spina bifida without hydrocephalus
- Q05.6 Thoracic spina bifida without hydrocephalus
- Q05.7 Lumbar spina bifida without hydrocephalus
- Q05.8 Sacral spina bifida without hydrocephalus
- Q05.9 Spina bifida, unspecified
Q06 Other congenital malformations of spinal cord7 codes
Q07 Other congenital malformations of nervous system6 codes
- Q07.00 Arnold-Chiari syndrome without spina bifida or hydrocephalus
- Q07.01 Arnold-Chiari syndrome with spina bifida
- Q07.02 Arnold-Chiari syndrome with hydrocephalus
- Q07.03 Arnold-Chiari syndrome with spina bifida and hydrocephalus
- Q07.8 Other specified congenital malformations of nervous system
- Q07.9 Congenital malformation of nervous system, unspecified
Questions About This Category
Why are these codes POA exempt?
The codes for congenital malformations of the nervous system describe circumstances where the Present on Admission question has no meaning, so CMS exempts them from the indicator. The exemption is published in the official FY 2026 CMS exempt file.
How many codes in this range are exempt?
The FY 2026 exempt list contains 45 codes in this range, effective October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026.
Are these codes billable?
The exemption only removes the POA indicator requirement, it does not change how a code is used on claims. Billable status is shown per code: blue codes are billable, and any codes shown in the amber tone are category headers that need more characters.
More POA Exempt Categories
Source: CMS FY 2026 ICD-10-CM POA exempt file, effective October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026. See also the Medicare Code Edits and the MS-DRG list.
