ICD-10 Codes for Anxiety: F41.1, F41.9 and Related Codes

The ICD-10-CM code for generalized anxiety disorder is F41.1, and F41.9 is anxiety disorder, unspecified. Panic disorder is F41.0, social anxiety disorder sits under F40.1, and panic disorder with agoraphobia is F40.01. None of these changed for FY2027 per CMS. In Ona, the code you pick on the visit flows into its draft claim.

Quick answer:

• The F41 category holds five billable codes in the US set: F41.0, F41.1, F41.3, F41.8 and F41.9. There is no F41.2 in ICD-10-CM, so a claim carrying it will not go through.
• Phobias, agoraphobia and social anxiety live one category up, in F40. Separation anxiety of childhood is F93.0, and adjustment disorder with anxiety is F43.22.
• F41.9 is a valid, billable code. It is the right code when it is genuinely all that is known, and a weak one when the note already supports something more specific.

The Anxiety Code Family at a Glance

Every code and descriptor below was checked against the FY2027 ICD-10-CM code descriptions and tabular list published by CMS, and cross-checked on icd10data.com, in October 2026. The FY2027 code set applies to dates of service from October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027.

Code	Official FY2027 descriptor	Billing notes from the tabular list
F41.0	Panic disorder [episodic paroxysmal anxiety]	Inclusion terms: panic attack, panic state. Excludes1: panic disorder with agoraphobia (F40.01)
F41.1	Generalized anxiety disorder	Inclusion terms: anxiety neurosis, anxiety reaction, anxiety state, overanxious disorder
F41.3	Other mixed anxiety disorders	Where the index sends "anxiety disorder, mixed, specified NEC"
F41.8	Other specified anxiety disorders	Inclusion terms include mixed anxiety and depressive disorder, and anxiety depression (mild or not persistent)
F41.9	Anxiety disorder, unspecified	Inclusion term: anxiety NOS. The index default for "anxiety" with no further detail
F40.00	Agoraphobia, unspecified	Use only when panic status is not documented
F40.01	Agoraphobia with panic disorder	Inclusion term: panic disorder with agoraphobia
F40.02	Agoraphobia without panic disorder
F40.10	Social phobia, unspecified	The F40.1 subcategory lists social anxiety disorder as an inclusion term
F40.11	Social phobia, generalized
F40.2-	Specific (isolated) phobias	Six-character codes, for example F40.240 claustrophobia, F40.243 fear of flying
F40.8	Other phobic anxiety disorders	Inclusion term: phobic anxiety disorder of childhood
F40.9	Phobic anxiety disorder, unspecified	Inclusion terms: phobia NOS, phobic state NOS
F93.0	Separation anxiety disorder of childhood	Listed as an Excludes2 under F41
F06.4	Anxiety disorder due to known physiological condition	Sits in the F01-F09 block, not in F41
F43.22	Adjustment disorder with anxiety	Adjustment disorders sit in F43.2, covered in a separate guide

Two structural details matter for anyone building a superbill or a favorites list. F40.0, F40.1 and F40.2 are subcategories, not billable codes: they need a fifth or sixth character. And the F40.2 specific phobias go to six characters, so a code that stops at F40.24 is incomplete. The FY2027 guidelines are blunt about this: a code is invalid if it has not been coded to the full number of characters required for that code.

What Changed for FY2027

Nothing in the anxiety codes. The FY2027 ICD-10-CM tabular addendum published by CMS touches chapter 5, Mental, Behavioral and Neurodevelopmental disorders, in only two places: a note change under F02 and a new code, F64.A, gender identity disorder, in remission. F40, F41, F43 and F93.0 carry the same codes and descriptors as last year. To look a code up yourself, the CDC's ICD-10-CM page links to the NCHS code browser.

That is worth knowing for a practical reason. If your claims started rejecting on anxiety codes after October 1, the cause is not the annual update. Look instead at incomplete codes, a stale code in a template, or a mismatch between the diagnosis and the payer's policy for the service billed.

There Is No F41.2 in the US Code Set

This one causes more rejected claims than it should. The F41 category in ICD-10-CM jumps from F41.1 to F41.3. There is no F41.2.

Mixed anxiety and depressive disorder does exist as a concept in the US classification, but it is an inclusion term under F41.8, other specified anxiety disorders. The alphabetic index points "disorder, anxiety, mixed, with depression" to F41.8 as well. If an old superbill, a spreadsheet of favorite codes, or a template carries F41.2, replace it with the code the documentation supports. A clearinghouse treats an invalid code as a rejection, not a denial: the claim never reaches the payer's adjudication, and the timely filing clock keeps running while it sits.

When F41.9 Is Fine and When It Costs You

F41.9 is billable, and the official guidelines defend it in the right circumstances. Section I.B.18 of the FY2027 guidelines says unspecified codes should be reported when they most accurately reflect what is known at that encounter, and that "Each healthcare encounter should be coded to the level of certainty known for that encounter." A first session where the clinician has documented anxiety but has not yet characterized it is a legitimate F41.9 visit.

The same guidelines cut the other way once more is known. Section IV, which governs outpatient services, tells coders to code to the highest level of specificity when it is supported by the medical record. If the clinician's note describes generalized anxiety disorder and the claim still says F41.9 six months into treatment, the claim understates what the record supports.

There is also a payer dimension, and it varies. Some payer policies list the diagnosis codes they accept for a given service, and a long run of unspecified codes on ongoing psychotherapy claims is the kind of pattern that can prompt a records request. Ona cannot tell you what a particular payer will do with F41.9, and neither can any article. What you can control is that the code on the claim matches the most specific diagnosis the clinician has documented.

The alphabetic index explains how F41.9 creeps onto claims. Look up "anxiety" with no further detail and the index sends you to F41.9. Look up "disorder, anxiety, generalized" and it sends you to F41.1. The difference is entirely in the wording of the documentation, which is why the note and the code have to be written by the same clinical decision, not reconstructed later by a biller.

Excludes Notes That Trip Claims

Two kinds of excludes note sit in the anxiety codes, and they mean opposite things.

Excludes1 means never together. The FY2027 guidelines describe it as "NOT CODED HERE!": the excluded code should never be used at the same time as the code above the note. F41.0, panic disorder, carries an Excludes1 for panic disorder with agoraphobia. So a patient documented with panic disorder and agoraphobia is coded F40.01 alone, not F41.0 plus an agoraphobia code. Coding both is a classic edit failure.

Excludes2 means not included here, but both can apply. The F41 category carries an Excludes2 list: acute stress reaction (F43.0), transient adjustment reaction (F43.2), neurasthenia (F48.8), psychophysiologic disorders (F45.-) and separation anxiety (F93.0). The guidelines say it is acceptable to report both codes together when the patient has both conditions. Excludes2 is permission, not an instruction, so both codes still need to be documented diagnoses.

Screening Scores Are Not a Diagnosis

A GAD-7 score does not establish F41.1. Screening instruments flag that something is worth evaluating; the diagnosis is the clinician's call, documented in the note. That distinction matters for coding, because a screening result alone is not documentation of a diagnosed condition.

When the visit itself is a screening encounter, ICD-10-CM has codes for that purpose. Z13.39 is encounter for screening examination for other mental health and behavioral disorders, and Z13.31 is encounter for screening for depression. Which one a payer accepts for a given service is a payer question.

In Ona, screening forms score themselves when the patient submits them, and the behavioral health page names PHQ-9 and GAD-7 among the screeners. The help page on screening forms is careful about what a result means: "A flag is not a diagnosis." The score lands on the patient's form record for the clinician to read. The diagnosis is a separate, deliberate step on the chart. How PHQ-9 and GAD-7 scoring works inside the chart covers the screening side in detail.

Documentation That Supports the Code

This is not about clinical criteria, which belong to the clinician. It is about the paper trail a biller or an auditor needs to see between the note and the claim.

• Name the condition in the classification's terms. "Generalized anxiety disorder", "panic disorder with agoraphobia", "social anxiety disorder". A note that only says "anxious" indexes to F41.9.
• State what is uncertain as uncertain. Section IV.H of the guidelines tells outpatient coders not to code diagnoses documented as "probable", "suspected", "rule out" or "working diagnosis". Code the symptoms or the highest certainty reached at that visit instead.
• Keep the diagnosis current. When the clinician refines a diagnosis, the chart should change with it, so the next claim does not carry last quarter's unspecified code.
• Link every service line to a diagnosis. A psychotherapy line with no pointer to a diagnosis is a predictable rejection.
• Record coexisting conditions that affect care. Section IV.J says to code all documented conditions that coexist and require or affect patient care.

How the Diagnosis Travels From Note to Claim in Ona

Ona is an AI-native, all-in-one practice management platform, and for a behavioral health practice the useful part is that the diagnosis, the note and the claim are the same record rather than three systems.

Pick the code on the chart. Add diagnosis on the patient Summary or inside the visit searches by condition name or ICD-10 code, then narrows column by column through the ICD-10 hierarchy. Category rows are marked not billable, and Ona's help page on diagnoses states you cannot add a non-billable code from the coded picker. So F40.2 cannot slip through as if it were a finished code. Certainty can be recorded on the chart as Provisional (working) or Differential (rule out). Section IV.H still governs the claim, so whoever reviews it should confirm that only established diagnoses are coded.

Write the note. AI charting drafts the session note against your DAP, BIRP or own template, and every change Ona proposes waits for the clinician to keep or discard it. A signed note locks, and later corrections become amendments with a required reason.

The claim builds from the chart. Per Ona's insurance page, each insured visit's draft claim rebuilds as diagnoses, procedures and services change. A billing rule called "Diagnosis codes on every line" requires every claim line to have a linked diagnosis code, and errors block submission until fixed. Your team reviews and submits; Ona does not send claims on its own.

Follow it to payment. Claims go out through Ona Clearing House or your own Claim.MD account. Ona separates a claim rejected by the clearinghouse from one denied by the payer, and denied claims can be corrected as a linked replacement and resubmitted. The full path, including superbills for out-of-network patients, is in From visit billing to superbill and claim.

One limit worth knowing: once saved, a diagnosis code on the chart cannot be edited. If the coded concept was wrong, archive the record and add the correct one. That is deliberate, because it keeps the history of what was coded and when.

What It Costs to Run This in Ona

ICD-10 search, charting and billing are part of the seat. Ona's pricing page lists a practitioner seat at $130 per month and a staff seat at $45, with 10% off on annual billing and a 14-day free trial with no credit card. Insurance claims need an Ona Clearing House plan, from $69 to $1,099 per month, each including unlimited providers and payer enrollments. A group practice with a dedicated biller gives that biller a staff seat on the same claims queue the clinicians feed, and larger, multi-location groups get custom pricing from five practitioners up.

Coding guidance in this article is general and current for FY2027 per CMS; payer rules vary, so confirm specific requirements with the payer before you bill.

Frequently asked questions

What is the ICD-10 code for generalized anxiety disorder?

F41.1, generalized anxiety disorder. It is a billable code in the FY2027 ICD-10-CM set, and its inclusion terms are anxiety neurosis, anxiety reaction, anxiety state and overanxious disorder. It did not change for FY2027.

What is the ICD-10 code for anxiety, unspecified?

F41.9, anxiety disorder, unspecified. The index sends "anxiety" with no further detail to this code. It is billable and appropriate when it reflects what is known at the encounter, but once the record supports a more specific diagnosis, the claim should carry the more specific code.

What is the ICD-10 code for panic disorder?

F41.0, panic disorder [episodic paroxysmal anxiety], which also covers panic attack and panic state. If the patient has panic disorder with agoraphobia, the code is F40.01 instead, and F41.0 should not be reported alongside it because of its Excludes1 note.

What is the ICD-10 code for social anxiety disorder?

Social anxiety disorder is an inclusion term under F40.1, social phobias. The billable codes are F40.10, social phobia, unspecified, and F40.11, social phobia, generalized. F40.1 on its own is a subcategory and is not a complete code.

Is F41.2 a valid ICD-10 code?

No. ICD-10-CM has no F41.2. Mixed anxiety and depressive disorder is an inclusion term under F41.8, other specified anxiety disorders. A claim carrying F41.2 is rejected as invalid before the payer ever reviews it.

Can a GAD-7 score be used as the diagnosis?

No. A GAD-7 result is a screening score, not a diagnosis. The diagnosis is the clinician's decision, documented in the note. In Ona, screening forms score themselves on submission, and the help page states plainly that a flag is not a diagnosis.

Next step

Bring two real anxiety claims to a 15-minute demo, one clean and one that came back, and watch where the diagnosis is chosen, how the draft claim picks it up and what the billing rules flag before it leaves. Or start the 14-day free trial from the pricing page, no credit card needed.