Serum Iron Studies for Anemia Caused by Sickle Cell or End Stage Renal Disease

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has been asked to add codes 282.60 through 282.69, sickle cell anemia, and 285.21, anemia in end-stage renal disease, to the list of covered codes in the national coverage determination (NCD) for serum iron studies. The serum iron studies NCD was part of the negotiated rulemaking and was published in the Federal Register in final on November 23, 2001 (66 FR 58788). These NCDs include narrative indications for clinical diagnostic laboratory services. Further, the NCD lists the codes that flow from the narrative indications in a covered code list. Given that the narrative includes coverage of "…decreased hemoglobin/hematocrit when mean corpuscular volume (MCV) is low or normal…", the requester believes the anemia codes should be added to the covered list.

November 4, 2002

January 28, 2003

February 28, 2003