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CPT 15111: Epidermal Autograft, Trunk/Arms/Legs (Additional)
CPT code 15111 denotes an epidermal autograft for the trunk, arms, or legs billed as an additional unit for each extra 100 cm2 or each additional one percent of body surface area (or for pediatric patients). This code is important nationally for reporting staged or supplemental grafting when the initial graft (for example, CPT 15110) does not encompass the full required donor or recipient area. Accurate use of 15111 affects coding granularity for burn care, wound management, and reconstructive procedures and supports appropriate clinical documentation and service-level accounting.
Key payers addressed include Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna Health, UnitedHealthcare, and Medicare. Readers will find a concise overview of the clinical context for epidermal autografting on the trunk, arms, and legs, the relationship between primary and additional procedure coding, and the typical sites where the service is delivered. The publication also outlines relevant diagnosis contexts such as thermal burns, pressure ulcers, and open wounds associated with grafting needs, and highlights adjacent codes used to report primary versus additional epidermal autograft services. This resource is intended to help coding professionals, clinicians, and policy analysts understand where 15111 is applied and how it fits into procedural coding for burn and wound reconstruction nationally.
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Billing Code Overview
CPT code 15111 describes an epidermal autograft of the trunk, arms, or legs performed as an additional procedure. The code covers each additional 100 cm2 or each additional one percent of body area (or an infant or child) when grafting sites on the trunk, arms, or legs. This procedure is typically performed in a surgical setting and the common sites of service are operating room or ambulatory surgery center, with possible performance in inpatient surgical units depending on clinical context.
National Reimbursement Benchmarks
Medicare mean reimbursement of $123.4 sits well below the BUCA (average commercial) mean of $422.8, indicating a substantial gap between public and commercial reimbursements for CPT 15111. Blue Cross Blue Shield and BUCA both have higher central tendencies than Medicare, while Aetna, Cigna, and UnitedHealth Group fall in between; this reflects a common public-versus-commercial divergence in allowed amounts.
Dispersion measured as P75–P25 is widest for Blue Cross Blue Shield at $522.8 ($883.2–$375.4) and narrowest for Aetna at $27.0 ($121.0–$94.3). UnitedHealth Group shows a wide spread of $137.9 ($232.4–$119.5), Cigna has $72.3 ($219.0–$116.7), and BUCA’s interquartile spread is $269.7 ($586.4–$261.7). Medicare’s interquartile spread is $10.0 ($128.0–$118.0).