Summary & Overview
CPT 50547: Laparoscopic Donor Nephrectomy with Cold Preservation
CPT code 50547 represents laparoscopic donor nephrectomy with placement of the removed kidney into a cold preservation device. This procedure is central to living-donor kidney transplantation programs and impacts surgical, transplant coordination, and post-operative care pathways nationwide. Its use reflects minimally invasive donor procurement intended to reduce donor morbidity while ensuring organ viability for transplantation.
Key payers in national coverage and reimbursement discussions include Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna Health, UnitedHealthcare, and Medicare. Analysis typically covers payment benchmarks, site-of-service considerations, and coding guidance relevant to transplant centers, hospitals, and ambulatory surgery centers.
Readers will learn the clinical and operational context of CPT code 50547, including the service type (laparoscopic donor nephrectomy), typical sites of service (hospital OR or ambulatory surgery center), and which payers commonly cover or adjudicate claims for this service. The publication also summarizes common modifiers when available, highlights areas where policy updates may affect billing and coverage, and provides benchmarking and coding considerations useful to billing managers, transplant program administrators, and clinicians involved in living-donor kidney procurement. Data not available in the input is noted where applicable.
Billing Code Overview
CPT code 50547 describes a laparoscopic donor nephrectomy with cold preservation. The procedure involves a surgeon using minimally invasive laparoscopic techniques to remove a kidney from a living donor and place the explanted organ into a cold preservation device for transport and storage prior to transplantation.
Service type: Surgical — Transplant Donor Nephrectomy (Laparoscopic)
Typical site of service: Hospital operating room or ambulatory surgery center where donor nephrectomy and organ procurement are performed
Clinical & Coding Specifications
Clinical Context
A typical patient is a healthy adult volunteer undergoing evaluation as a living kidney donor. Preoperative workup includes medical history, laboratory testing, crossmatch, imaging (renal CT angiography or MR angiography) to assess vascular anatomy, and anesthesia evaluation. On the day of surgery the donor is taken to the operating room for a laparoscopic donor nephrectomy. Under general endotracheal anesthesia, the surgical team performs a transperitoneal laparoscopic approach with trocars placed, mobilization of the colon and kidney, identification and control of the renal artery and vein, division of the ureter, and laparoscopic extraction of the kidney through a small incision or extraction device. The removed kidney is immediately flushed with cold preservation solution and placed in a sterile cold preservation device for transport to the transplant recipient team. Typical intraoperative documentation includes consent for donor nephrectomy and organ donation, details of vascular control, estimated blood loss, warm ischemia time, and confirmation that the organ was placed in cold storage. Postoperative workflow includes recovery from anesthesia, donor monitoring for complications (bleeding, infection, pulmonary issues), discharge planning (often same-day observation or 1–2 day stay), and communication with the transplant recipient team and organ procurement records.
Coding Specifications
| Modifier | Description | When to Use |
|---|---|---|
52 | Reduced services | Use when the laparoscopic donor nephrectomy is partially reduced or not completed as originally planned. |