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CPT 15002: Preparation of Recipient Site for Skin Graft
Headline: CPT code 15002: Surgical preparation of recipient site for skin grafts
Lead: CPT code 15002 captures surgical incision and preparation of a recipient site with an open wound, burn eschar, or scar contracture to receive a skin graft. It applies to the first 100 cm2 for adults and children 10 and older, or to the first 1 percent of body area for infants and children under 10.
What the code represents and national relevance: CPT code 15002 documents a focused, operative step critical to reconstructive wound care and burn management. As skin grafting remains a central treatment for burns, scar contractures, and complex wounds, accurate use of this code affects clinical documentation, procedure sequencing, and national billing consistency across surgical and plastic surgery practices.
Key payers covered: Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna Health, UnitedHealthcare, and Medicare are included in the payer set informing typical coverage and administrative expectations.
What readers will learn: The publication provides benchmarks and comparisons for code application, clarifies clinical context and site-of-service expectations, and maps related procedure codes used for grafting and subsequent reconstruction. Readers will find guidance on typical clinical scenarios where 15002 is used, how it relates to adjacent graft and donor-site codes, and common documentation elements to support appropriate use.
Scope: Content is national in scope and focuses on billing, coding context, and clinical applicability for surgical teams and coding professionals.
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Billing Code Overview
CPT code 15002 describes an operative procedure in which the provider incises the skin of a body part containing an open wound, burn eschar, or scar contracture to prepare the recipient site to receive a skin graft. The procedure is used to ready damaged tissue on the trunk, arms, or legs for subsequent grafting by releasing scar contracture or removing devitalized tissue.
Service Type: Surgical preparation of recipient site for skin graft
Typical Site of Service: Operating room or procedure suite for trunk, arms, or legs
National Reimbursement Benchmarks
National averages place Blue Cross Blue Shield and UnitedHealth Group above Medicare and BUCA: Medicare mean is $373.9 while BUCA’s average commercial mean is $617.5, so BUCA pays about $243.6 more on average than Medicare. This positions BUCA closer to the upper commercial band and well above the Medicare locality mean of $373.9.
Dispersion (P75–P25) varies notably by payer. Blue Cross Blue Shield has a wide interquartile spread of $362.2 ($940.8–$528.6), reflecting high variability; Cigna’s spread is $289.0 ($556.7–$271.7) and UnitedHealth Group’s spread is $313.5 ($632.4–$315.9). Aetna’s spread is $180.3 ($401.8–$221.5), the tightest among payers with full quartiles. BUCA’s interquartile span is $288.0 ($764.8–$417.6). These differences highlight which payers cluster vs. vary around their means.