W16.91XA vs W74

W16.91XA (Jumping or diving into unspecified water causing drowning and submersion, initial encounter) compared with W74 (Unspecified cause of accidental drowning and submersion), from the official CMS tabular data. Do not report these codes together: the official tabular list marks them Excludes1.

Relationship

Conflict

Excludes1 conflict

W16.91XA

Jumping or diving into unspecified water causing drowning and submersion, initial encounter

↔

W74

Unspecified cause of accidental drowning and submersion

Not coded here — these two are mutually exclusive.

“accidental non-watercraft drowning and submersion not involving fall (W65-W74)”

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. W16.91XA carries an Excludes1 note covering W74: “accidental non-watercraft drowning and submersion not involving fall (W65-W74)”

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

	W16.91XAJumping or diving into unspecified water causing drowning and submersion, initial encounter	W74Unspecified cause of accidental drowning and submersion
Billing status	Billable	Non-billable header Report instead: W74.XXXA, W74.XXXD, W74.XXXS
Classification	V00-Y99 — External Causes of Morbidity (V00-Y99)	V00-Y99 — External Causes of Morbidity (V00-Y99)
Definition	Jumping or diving into unspecified water causing drowning and submersion, initial encounter is a billable ICD-10-CM diagnosis code (W16.91A).	Unspecified cause of accidental drowning and submersion is a non-billable ICD-10-CM category code (W74).
7th character	The appropriate 7th character is to be added to each code from category W16	The appropriate 7th character is to be added to code W74
Includes	—	Drowning NOS

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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