Billing code 29866: Cartilage restorationMedicare rate & RVUs

Medicare pays $979.31 for 29866 nationally in a facility.

Medicare allowed amount for participating (non-QP) physicians, before deductible, coinsurance and claim adjustments. Not a patient’s bill or a hospital charge.

What 29866 covers

This procedure transfers one or more plugs of the patient’s own bone and cartilage from a donor area of the knee to a focal cartilage defect, using arthroscopy. It is used for selected osteochondral lesions where replacing the damaged surface with the patient’s own tissue is appropriate. An orthopedic surgeon typically performs it in an operating room, most often in a hospital outpatient or ambulatory surgery setting. The graft harvest is part of the service.

Report the code when the operative documentation supports arthroscopic autograft transfer, rather than a different cartilage-restoration method or an allograft. Documentation should identify the defect, the autograft transfer, and the arthroscopic approach. CMS assigns a 90-day global period, including the day-before preoperative visit and 90 days of related postoperative care. For multiple procedures in one session, the highest-valued procedure is paid in full and other procedures are subject to the standard 50% reduction. Bilateral reporting with modifier 50 is paid at 150%. Assistant-at-surgery payment requires documented medical necessity; co-surgeons and team surgery are not permitted.

This summary was written with AI assistance from CMS physician fee schedule data and checked against the CMS billing rules shown here. Rates on this page come directly from CMS files.

Where 29866 pays more and less

The same RVUs, adjusted for each area’s costs. Open a locality for its calculation, history and nearby areas.

109 of 109 payment localities

29866 rates by state

Office rate range in each state. Select a state to see its payment localities.

How the 29866 rate is calculated

Each of 29866’s three RVUs is multiplied by a geographic index (GPCI) for the payment locality, added up, and multiplied by the conversion factor. Drag the indexes or enter a ZIP to see what moves the rate.

Payment rules and modifiers for 29866

29866 has a 90-day global period: related visits in that window are included in the surgery payment.

What modifiers do to the payment

When to use modifier 50

29866 compared with similar codes

How to choose

29867Knee allograft

Use 29866 for arthroscopic transfer of the patient’s own osteochondral tissue. Use 29867 for arthroscopic implantation of donor allograft tissue.

29879Arthroscopic cartilage procedure

29879 describes abrasion arthroplasty, not transfer of an osteochondral plug. Select based on the technique documented in the operative report.

27412Cartilage implantation

27412 describes autologous chondrocyte implantation, a distinct cartilage-restoration procedure. It is not the arthroscopic transfer of osteochondral autograft plugs reported with 29866.

Codes related to 29866

Related codes aren’t interchangeable: bill the code that matches the service performed.

Where these rates come from

FeeBase calculates base physician payments from CMS work, practice-expense and malpractice RVUs, adjusted by each locality’s geographic indexes and the conversion factor. Services without a published rate are labeled, never given a made-up amount. Amounts are Medicare allowed amounts before claim adjustments: not a patient’s bill or a commercial rate.

CMS RVU26D · effective Oct 1, 2026 through the day before Jan 1, 2027

Open CMS sourceHow we calculate rates