Find policies, billing codes, payers, states, and providers
CPT 15100: Split‑Thickness Autograft from Trunk, Arms, or Legs
CPT code 15100 denotes a split‑thickness autograft procedure in which skin is harvested from the trunk, arms, or legs and placed to cover a defect measuring up to 100 cm² or, for infants and children, up to one percent of total body area. This surgical grafting technique is a foundational reconstructive option for burns, trauma, and other full‑thickness soft‑tissue defects and is widely used across hospital and ambulatory surgical settings. Nationally, proper coding of skin autograft procedures affects surgical service reporting, resource allocation, and physician billing consistency.
Key payers covered in this overview include Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna Health, UnitedHealthcare, and Medicare. Readers will find a concise explanation of the clinical and coding scope of 15100, comparisons to related graft codes, and context for typical sites of service and clinical indications. The publication summarizes benchmark considerations and common documentation elements that inform payer adjudication. The content is intended to help billing, compliance, and clinical teams understand where 15100 fits within reconstructive surgery coding, how it differs from adjacent codes for different anatomic sites or graft sizes, and what clinical contexts commonly justify use of this code.
Customize your policy alerts
Sign up for cpt 15100 policy alerts
Get alerted when payer policies referencing 15100 are released or updated.
Monitor payer policy activity
Billing Code Overview
CPT code 15100 describes a split‑thickness autograft harvested from the trunk, arms, or legs. The procedure involves excision and placement of the autograft for the first 100 cm² or less, or one percent of body area for an infant or child.
Service type: Autograft skin grafting (split‑thickness), surgical procedure.
Typical site of service: Operating room or procedure suite in an inpatient or outpatient surgical setting, with donor sites on the trunk, arms, or legs.
National Reimbursement Benchmarks
Commercial averages sit well above Medicare: Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Aetna, UnitedHealth Group and BUCA all show mean rates higher than Medicare’s $948.10 mean, with BUCA’s average at $1,970.10 — roughly $1,022.00 higher than Medicare’s mean. This gap highlights a substantial premium in BUCA’s national commercial average relative to the Medicare baseline.
Dispersion varies materially across payers. Blue Cross Blue Shield and UnitedHealth Group exhibit the widest interquartile spreads: BCBS P75–P25 equals $2,993.10 and UnitedHealth Group P75–P25 equals $803.30, indicating BCBS has the largest middle 50% variability and UnitedHealth Group shows notable spread as well. Cigna and Aetna show tighter middle spreads (Cigna P75–P25 = $762.60; Aetna P75–P25 = $606.50), suggesting more concentrated commercial pricing among those payers, while BUCA’s IQR is $1,024.60, reflecting substantial but not the largest dispersion.