F60.3
BillableBorderline personality disorder
HCC Category Mapping
V28HCC 153 — Personality Disorders and Dissociative Disorders
1.241V24HCC 60 — Personality Disorders
0.000ESRDHCC 60 — Personality Disorders
0.000RxHCCHCC 133 — Personality Disorders, Anxiety, and Other Specified Mental Disorders
0.000What This Code Means
A personality pattern characterized by unstable relationships, intense fear of abandonment, impulsive behaviors, and emotional instability.
Coding Tips
- •Document specific examples of relationship instability, self-harm behaviors, or identity disturbance
- •Ensure criteria are met across multiple life domains and not attributable to another mental disorder or medical condition
Clinical Significance
Borderline personality disorder is characterized by pervasive instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affect, with marked impulsivity. It is the most commonly diagnosed personality disorder in clinical settings and carries a 10% lifetime suicide rate. Patients frequently present to emergency departments for self-harm, suicidal gestures, and emotional crises, making it a high-resource utilization condition.
Documentation Requirements
- ✓Documentation of pervasive pattern of instability in relationships, self-image, and affect with impulsivity beginning by early adulthood
- ✓Evidence of at least five DSM-5 criteria (frantic avoidance of abandonment, unstable relationships, identity disturbance, impulsivity, recurrent suicidal behavior/self-harm, affective instability, chronic emptiness, inappropriate anger, transient paranoia/dissociation)
- ✓Pattern is enduring and pervasive, not limited to mood episodes
- ✓Assessment of current self-harm and suicidal risk
- ✓Differentiation from bipolar disorder rapid cycling and complex PTSD
Excludes 2 — Not included here, may code separately
- antisocial personality disorder (F60.2)
Commonly Confused Codes
F31.x (Bipolar disorder) — mood cycling in bipolar is episodic; borderline mood shifts are rapid (hours to days) and reactiveF43.10 (PTSD, unspecified) — complex PTSD overlaps significantly but is a response to trauma, not a personality pattern per seF60.2 (Antisocial personality disorder) — impulsivity and recklessness overlap, but borderline features fear of abandonment and emotional dysregulationF60.4 (Histrionic personality disorder) — attention seeking and emotionality overlap, but borderline includes self-harm and identity disturbanceF44.81 (Dissociative identity disorder) — borderline may include transient dissociation, but does not involve distinct identity states
Code Hierarchy
└F60Specific personality disorders└F60.3Borderline personality disorder
└F60.3Borderline personality disorder