Anesthesia Coding Alert

Answer: This depends partly on the status of the donor. Some practices do not bill for deceased organ harvests. Those usually are covered by organ procurement organizations (this may vary by state, so check with your local authorities). The organ procurement is then billed through the hospital to the insurance company. If there is a live donor, then bill the recipients insurance for the amount, and it is usually paid in full.

There are a number of codes associated with organ donation and receipt, depending on the situation. Some common codes you could use to report these situations include: 33930 (donor cardiectomy-pneumonectomy, with preparation and maintenance of allograft) for heart-lung transplant donation; 33935 (heart-lung transplant with recipient cardiectomy-pneumonectomy) for heart-lung receipt; 33940 (donor cardiectomy, with preparation and maintenance of allograft) for heart donation; 33945 (heart transplant, with or without recipient cardiectomy) for heart receipt; 50300 (donor nephrectomy, with preparation and maintenance of allograft, from cadaver donor, unilateral or bilateral), 50320 (donor nephrectomy, open from living donor [excluding preparation and maintenance of allograft]), or 50547 (laparoscopy, donor nephrectomy from living donor [excluding preparation and maintenance of allograft]) for kidney donation; and 50340 (recipient nephrectomy [separate procedure]), 50360 (renal allotransplantation, implantation of graft; excluding donor and recipient nephrectomy), 50365 (renal allotransplantation, implantation of graft; with recipient nephrectomy), 50370 (removal of transplanted renal allograft) and 50380 (renal autotransplantation, reimplantation of kidney) for kidney receipt.

Check with your local carrier about when it will accept codes for organ transplant and donation, and which codes it accepts in particular situations.