Bipolar 1 ICD-10: Why There's No Single Code (And How to Pick the Right One)

You searched for the bipolar 1 ICD-10 code, got a wall of codes back, and left without an answer.

You're not imagining it. There isn't one.

ICD-10-CM doesn't file bipolar I under a single code. It files it under a whole category, F31, and then asks you two questions: which episode is your client in right now, and how severe is it?¹ Get that wrong and the claim either rejects the same day or comes back months later asking for records.

The good news: once you see how the bipolar 1 ICD-10 codes are organized, picking the right one takes seconds. Here's what the F31 family actually says, which codes you can bill, and the three mistakes that cost practices the most.

There's No Single Bipolar 1 Code. There's a Whole Category.

Let's answer the question first: bipolar I isn't one code. It's the entire F31 category.

That's not a workaround or a shortcut. It's what the official tabular says. The Includes note under F31 lists "bipolar I disorder" and "bipolar type I disorder" outright, alongside manic-depressive illness, manic-depressive psychosis, manic-depressive reaction, and seasonal bipolar disorder.¹ When you code anywhere in F31, you're coding bipolar I.

That's why searching for an ICD-10 code for bipolar type 1 returns a list instead of an answer. The list is the answer.

With one exception worth memorizing: F31.81 (Bipolar II disorder) is the only code in the family that isn't bipolar I.¹ Everything else under F31 is bipolar I territory.

Two other things to know before you look at the list. F31 itself isn't billable, since it's a category header. And the search you're running is the wrong search.

Stop looking up "bipolar 1." Ask what episode your client is in right now and how severe it is. The bipolar 1 disorder diagnosis code falls out of the answer, every time.

That's less annoying than it sounds. ICD-10-CM cares about the episode in front of you, not the lifetime diagnosis. The code describes today's visit.

It's worth knowing why this trips people up. A prescriber at a 10-provider Minnesota outpatient clinic types "bipolar 1" into the EHR dropdown and picks the first result. But that dropdown is sorted alphabetically, not clinically. The first hit is rarely the right one.

The Full F31 Family: All 28 Billable Codes

Below is the complete bipolar disorder ICD-10 code list, grouped by current episode. Descriptions come straight from the CMS FY2026 tabular.¹ One habit worth building: these files refresh every October 1, so check the current year's release before trusting any code list, including this one.²

Watch the header rows. F31.1, F31.3, F31.6, F31.7, and F31.8 look like real codes in a dropdown, but they need another character. Submit F31.1 instead of F31.11 and you get a front-end rejection: fast, quiet, and easy to miss on a remit. Practices that track their clean claim rate usually catch this pattern first.

Current episode hypomanic

Code	Official Description	Billable
F31.0	Bipolar disorder, current episode hypomanic	Yes

Current episode manic

Code	Official Description	Billable
F31.1	Bipolar disorder, current episode manic without psychotic features	No, header
F31.10	Bipolar disorder, current episode manic without psychotic features, unspecified	Yes
F31.11	Bipolar disorder, current episode manic without psychotic features, mild	Yes
F31.12	Bipolar disorder, current episode manic without psychotic features, moderate	Yes
F31.13	Bipolar disorder, current episode manic without psychotic features, severe	Yes
F31.2	Bipolar disorder, current episode manic severe with psychotic features	Yes

Most bipolar 1 manic episode ICD-10 decisions get made right here, on this severity ladder: F31.10 when severity isn't documented, up through F31.13, then F31.2 once psychotic features show up in the note.

Current episode depressed

Code	Official Description	Billable
F31.3	Bipolar disorder, current episode depressed, mild or moderate severity	No, header
F31.30	Bipolar disorder, current episode depressed, mild or moderate severity, unspecified	Yes
F31.31	Bipolar disorder, current episode depressed, mild	Yes
F31.32	Bipolar disorder, current episode depressed, moderate	Yes
F31.4	Bipolar disorder, current episode depressed, severe, without psychotic features	Yes
F31.5	Bipolar disorder, current episode depressed, severe, with psychotic features	Yes

Current episode mixed

Code	Official Description	Billable
F31.6	Bipolar disorder, current episode mixed	No, header
F31.60	Bipolar disorder, current episode mixed, unspecified	Yes
F31.61	Bipolar disorder, current episode mixed, mild	Yes
F31.62	Bipolar disorder, current episode mixed, moderate	Yes
F31.63	Bipolar disorder, current episode mixed, severe, without psychotic features	Yes
F31.64	Bipolar disorder, current episode mixed, severe, with psychotic features	Yes

Currently in remission

Code	Official Description	Billable
F31.7	Bipolar disorder, currently in remission	No, header
F31.70	Bipolar disorder, currently in remission, most recent episode unspecified	Yes
F31.71	Bipolar disorder, in partial remission, most recent episode hypomanic	Yes
F31.72	Bipolar disorder, in full remission, most recent episode hypomanic	Yes
F31.73	Bipolar disorder, in partial remission, most recent episode manic	Yes
F31.74	Bipolar disorder, in full remission, most recent episode manic	Yes
F31.75	Bipolar disorder, in partial remission, most recent episode depressed	Yes
F31.76	Bipolar disorder, in full remission, most recent episode depressed	Yes
F31.77	Bipolar disorder, in partial remission, most recent episode mixed	Yes
F31.78	Bipolar disorder, in full remission, most recent episode mixed	Yes

Other and unspecified

Code	Official Description	Billable
F31.8	Other bipolar disorders	No, header
F31.81	Bipolar II disorder	Yes (not bipolar I)
F31.89	Other bipolar disorder	Yes
F31.9	Bipolar disorder, unspecified	Yes

Still unsure whether the whole category really means bipolar I? Two codes settle it. F31.2 carries the inclusion term "Bipolar I disorder, current or most recent episode manic with psychotic features," and F31.5 carries "Bipolar I disorder, current or most recent episode depressed, with psychotic features."¹ The tabular says it in plain language.

One last detail: F31.9's inclusion term is "Manic depression."¹ The old name still routes here.

Mistake #1: Coding a First Manic Episode as F31

Of all the bipolar 1 ICD-10 rules, this is the one that surprises people most, because the client clearly has bipolar symptoms.

F31 carries an Excludes1 note for "bipolar disorder, single manic episode (F30.-)".¹ And over in F30, the Includes note claims that exact scenario: bipolar disorder, single manic episode.¹

Excludes1 isn't a suggestion. The official guidelines call it a pure excludes note, meaning "NOT CODED HERE!" The excluded code "should never be used at the same time as the code above the Excludes1 note."³

So a true first manic episode, with no prior mood-episode history documented, codes to F30.-, not F31. Once a later episode establishes the pattern, you move to F31.

Now compare that to cyclothymia. F31 lists cyclothymia (F34.0) under an Excludes2 note.¹ Excludes2 means "not included here," and a client may have both conditions at the same time, so you can report F31 and F34.0 together when the chart supports it.³

Two notes that look nearly identical. Opposite rules. Most billers have never been told the difference, and it's the kind of thing that only surfaces through consistent denial tracking.

Mistake #2: Treating F31.9 as a Parking Spot

Let's defend F31.9 first, because it takes an unfair beating in most bipolar 1 ICD-10 guidance you'll read.

F31.9 (Bipolar disorder, unspecified) is billable, and it's genuinely appropriate early.⁴ At intake, before episode polarity is clear, it's often the honest code. It isn't a bad code.

The problem is never leaving it.

A client in active treatment has a current episode. The progress note usually documents it. When claims stay parked on F31.9 across a full treatment episode, the code and the chart start telling different stories, and that mismatch invites specificity flags and records requests.

To move to a specific code, the note needs four things:

• Current episode type (manic, hypomanic, depressed, or mixed)
• Severity (mild, moderate, or severe)
• Presence or absence of psychotic features
• Remission status

Here's the encouraging part: that information is almost always already in the chart. It just never makes it to the claim.

The cause is usually mechanical, not clinical. Someone set the EHR favorite at intake and nobody revisited it. A monthly A/R audit tends to surface this quickly, showing a panel where a large share of bipolar claims sit on F31.9 while the notes say something more specific. That's a fixable pattern, and it's the sort of thing an A/R cleanup is built to catch.

Mistake #3: Leaving Remission Codes on the Table

The F31.7x branch is the most underused part of the family: nine codes that capture partial versus full remission and the most recent episode type.¹

Why bother? Because a stable long-term client coded with an active-episode code contradicts their own progress note. When the note says "euthymic, stable" and the claim says "current episode manic, moderate," those two documents disagree. The chart is what gets pulled.

The granularity is finer than most people use. F31.73 (partial remission, most recent episode manic) and F31.74 (full remission, most recent episode manic) describe different clinical realities, and the note usually supports one clearly.

F31.70 exists for when the most recent episode type isn't documented. But the same logic from the last section applies: it's a starting point, not a parking spot.

Picture a client seen monthly for medication management at an outpatient clinic, stable for two years, still carrying the code from their intake. The billing isn't wrong because someone was careless. It's wrong because nothing prompted a second look.

Final Thoughts: The Question Isn't "Which Code," It's "Which Episode"

There's no single bipolar 1 ICD-10 code because ICD-10-CM isn't asking about your client's lifetime diagnosis. It's asking about the episode in front of you today. Once you're asking "which episode, how severe," the bipolar 1 ICD-10 code gets easy and the claim holds up.

Coding it right once is straightforward. Doing it across every provider, every payer, and every claim, then catching the header-code rejection or the panel quietly drifting onto F31.9, is the part that takes a team.

That's the work we do. If denials on behavioral health claims are eating your week, our behavioral health billing services team is happy to talk it through with you. Reach out to start a conversation.

Footnotes

1. 2026 ICD-10-CM Code Tables, Tabular and Index (see icd10cm_tabular_2026.xml, category F31). Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, FY2026

2. ICD-10-CM Files. National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, 2026

3. ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting, FY 2026 (Section I.A.12, Excludes Notes). Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, FY2026

4. Clinical Tables ICD-10-CM Search API (billable code verification, F31 category). U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2026