Specialty Groups — Oncology

There have been significant changes to procedure codes for bone marrow procedures and related services. Following are the code revisions for this section:

38220

Bone marrow; aspiration only

38221

Bone marrow; biopsy, needle or trocar

New codes added to this section for 2003 include:

38204

Management of recipient hematopoietic progenitor cell donor search and cell acquisition

38205

Blood-derived hematopoietic progenitor cell harvesting for transplantation, per collection; allogenic

38206

Blood-derived hematopoietic progenitor cell harvesting for transplantation, per collection; autologous

38207

Transplant preparation of hematopoietic progenitor cells; cryopreservation and storage

(For diagnostic cryopreservation and storage, see 88240)

38208

Transplant preparation of hematopoietic progenitor cells; thawing of previously frozen harvest

(For diagnostic thawing and expansion of frozen cells, see 88241)

38209

Transplant preparation of hematopoietic progenitor cells; washing of harvest

38210

Transplant preparation of hematopoietic progenitor cells; specific cell depletion within harvest, T-cell depletion

38211

Transplant preparation of hematopoietic progenitor cells; tumor cell depletion

38212

Transplant preparation of hematopoietic progenitor cells; red blood cell removal

38213

Transplant preparation of hematopoietic progenitor cells; platelet depletion

38214

Transplant preparation of hematopoietic progenitor cells; plasma (volume) depletion

38215

Transplant preparation of hematopoietic progenitor cells; cell concentration in plasma, mononuclear, or buffy coat layer

38242

Bone marrow or blood-derived peripheral stem cell transplantation; allogenic donor lymphocyte infusions

A deleted code in this section is 38231 (blood-derived peripheral stem cell harvesting for transplantation, per collection), and the coder is redirected to 38205 or 38206 to report this service.

There has also been a verbiage change to the existing pump refill code and the addition of a new code to clarify whether the medication is administered through the vascular system, or the central nervous system. Effective January 1, 2003 these code descriptors read:

96530

Refilling and maintenance of implantable pump or reservoir for drug delivery, systemic (eg, intravenous, intra-arterial)

95990

Refilling and maintenance of implantable pump or reservoir for drug delivery, spinal (Intrathecal, epidural) or brain (intraventricular)

Remember that even though the diagnosis code changes are officially effective October 1 and procedure code changes effective January 1, 2003, not all payors will accept these codes in that time frame. Certain payors, such as some Medicaid or Worker’s Compensation plans, may require additional time to update their computer systems and recognize these coding changes and additions.