V90.10XS vs V94.81

V90.10XS (Drowning and submersion due to merchant ship sinking, sequela) compared with V94.81 (Water transport accident involving military watercraft), from the official CMS tabular data. Do not report these codes together: the official tabular list marks them Excludes1.

Relationship

Conflict

Excludes1 conflict

V90.10XS

Drowning and submersion due to merchant ship sinking, sequela

↔

V94.81

Water transport accident involving military watercraft

Not coded here — these two are mutually exclusive.

“civilian water transport accident involving military watercraft (V94.81-)”

An Excludes1 note means the two conditions cannot occur together, so the pair should not be reported for the same encounter. The sole exception is when the conditions are documented as unrelated to each other.

Source: CMS ICD-10-CM tabular instructional notes; ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines, Section I.A.12.a

Can these codes be reported together?

No — do not report together. V90.10XS carries an Excludes1 note covering V94.81: “civilian water transport accident involving military watercraft (V94.81-)”

Sole exception: when the two conditions are documented as unrelated to each other (ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines, Section I.A.12.a).

Side by side

	V90.10XSDrowning and submersion due to merchant ship sinking, sequela	V94.81Water transport accident involving military watercraft
Billing status	Billable	Non-billable header Report instead: V94.810A, V94.810D, V94.810S, V94.811A, V94.811D
Classification	V00-Y99 — External Causes of Morbidity (V00-Y99)	V00-Y99 — External Causes of Morbidity (V00-Y99)
Definition	Drowning and submersion due to merchant ship sinking, sequela is a billable ICD-10-CM diagnosis code (V90.10S).	Water transport accident involving military watercraft is a non-billable ICD-10-CM category code (V94.81).
7th character	The appropriate 7th character is to be added to each code from category V90	The appropriate 7th character is to be added to each code from category V94

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Derived from the official CMS ICD-10-CM tabular data (FY2026). Not billing advice; verify sequencing rules for the encounter. All data sources