Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

Question: I'm confused about coding a bone marrow harvest when the donor is not the patient whom the physician is treating for disease. Is there a specific CPT code for harvesting bone marrow for allogenic transplant? New Mexico Subscriber Answer: You should report 38230 (Bone marrow harvesting for transplantation) for bone marrow harvesting whether the transplant will be autologous or allogenic. In other words, you should use the same code whether you perform the procedure on the "sick" patient who will receive the harvested bone marrow or on the "donor" patient who is not being treated for disease. The autologous versus allogenic distinction, however, will be important when you code the transplant. You should choose 38241 (Bone marrow or blood-derived peripheral stem cell transplantation; autologous) for an autologous transplant, in which the physician takes stem cells from the patient before chemotherapy or radiation treatment. Following treatment, the patient receives those [...]