M47.812: Spondylosis without myelopathy or radiculopathy, cervical region

Yes. M47.812 is a valid billable code and requires no further characters. It is valid in the FY2026 code set and unchanged in the FY2027 update. The parent subcategory M47.81 is not billable. Only the region specific children are reportable.

The region values are the same across the category: 1 for the occipito-atlanto-axial region, 2 for cervical, 3 for cervicothoracic, 4 for thoracic, 5 for thoracolumbar, 6 for lumbar, 7 for lumbosacral and 8 for the sacral and sacrococcygeal region. Where that character sits and what the residual value is both change by branch. In the M47.1- and M47.2- codes the region is the fifth character and site unspecified is 0, giving M47.10 and M47.20. In the M47.81- and M47.89- codes the region is the sixth character and site unspecified is 9, giving M47.819 and M47.899. One gap matters. The myelopathy branch stops at 6. The M47.1- codes offer no lumbosacral and no sacral option. The radiculopathy branch runs the full range through M47.28.

The four terms belong to four different code families. The words are close enough to be swapped in error. Spondylosis is degenerative and codes to M47, whose Includes note covers arthrosis or osteoarthritis of spine and degeneration of facet joints, giving M47.812 at the cervical region. Spondylolysis is a defect of the pars interarticularis and codes to M43.0-, giving M43.02 at the cervical region. Spondylolisthesis is the forward slip of one vertebra on the one below and codes to M43.1-, giving M43.12 at the cervical region. Subcategory M43.0 carries an Excludes1 note for spondylolisthesis. The pars defect code and the slip code are not reported together for the same condition. Ankylosing spondylitis is an inflammatory spondyloarthropathy and codes to M45.-, giving M45.2 at the cervical region. Only the last of the four maps to a CMS-HCC v28 category.

A disc or radiculopathy code takes over as soon as the note names the intervertebral disc or the nerve root as the thing that is wrong. Cervical degenerative disc disease names the disc, and it codes to the M50.3- family: M50.30 for the unspecified cervical region, M50.31 for the high cervical region, the M50.32- codes for the mid-cervical region with a level character for C4-C5, C5-C6 and C6-C7, and M50.33 for the cervicothoracic region. A documented disc herniation codes to the M50.2- displacement codes, or to M50.0- with myelopathy and M50.1- with radiculopathy. Documented cervical radiculopathy with no named cause codes to M54.12, which is the code the site covers separately. Documented radiculopathy attributed to the spondylosis codes to M47.22, under the Excludes1 note at M54.1 that sends radiculopathy with spondylosis to the M47.2- codes. One phrase runs the other way. AHIMA, citing Coding Clinic, directs the phrase degenerative changes of the cervical spine to M47.812. The cited advice reads: assign code M47.812, Spondylosis without myelopathy or radiculopathy, cervical region, for the final interpretation of degenerative changes of the cervical spine. Degenerative disc disease and degenerative changes sit one word apart and lead to different families. Ask the provider which structure is degenerating where the note gives only the phrase.

No. M47.812 maps to no CMS-HCC v28 category, and no other code in category M47 does either. Reporting it does not raise a beneficiary's risk score and does not generate HCC credit for a Medicare Advantage plan. Adding the myelopathy or radiculopathy branch does not change that. The nearest family that does carry weight is ankylosing spondylitis, where M45.2 maps to v28 category 93, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Other Specified Inflammatory Rheumatic Disorders.

In the outpatient setting M47.812 is sequenced first when cervical spondylosis is the reason for the encounter, in primary care, physical therapy, orthopedic spine and pain management visits. Neck pain routinely associated with the spondylosis is not coded additionally. Guideline I.B.5 states that signs and symptoms associated routinely with a disease process should not be assigned as additional codes, unless otherwise instructed by the classification. In the inpatient setting M47.812 is reportable as a principal diagnosis when the admission is for the spondylosis itself. It is reportable as a secondary diagnosis alongside a cervical procedure. The outpatient rule on uncertain diagnoses applies as usual: only the confirmed diagnosis is coded. An inpatient discharge diagnosis documented as probable or suspected may be coded as confirmed under UHDDS rules.

The note must document three things: a spondylosis diagnosis, the cervical region, and the absence of both myelopathy and radiculopathy. The diagnosis may be written as cervical spondylosis, degenerative change of the cervical spine, cervical facet arthrosis or osteoarthritis of the cervical spine, all of which the M47 Includes note covers. The region must be named, because M47.819 is the same branch with the region given up. The two neurological complications must be addressed, because M47.9 is the alphabetic index default for the bare word spondylosis with neither region nor branch settled. One further residual sits beside these. M47.892, other spondylosis of the cervical region, states the region but sits in the M47.89 branch, for a specified form of cervical spondylosis that fits none of the three main branches.

M47.812 is unchanged in the FY2027 update, effective 1 October 2026. The FY2027 Chapter 13 additions fall in the VEXAS syndrome, plantar fasciitis and osteomyelitis groups rather than in category M47. The FY2026 update, effective 1 October 2025, also left the descriptor at M47.812 and the Includes note at M47 unchanged. No code in category M47 was added, deleted or revised in that update.