C2618: Probe/needle, cryoablation
C2618 is a HCPCS Level II code for probe/needle, cryoablation. It belongs to the Outpatient Prospective Payment System section. Whether Medicare pays it depends on the coverage rule below.
Medicare coverage: Special coverage instructions apply
There are published conditions attached to this code. Check the applicable coverage policy before billing it: the code being valid is not the same as the service being covered.
From the coverage field of the CMS Alpha-Numeric HCPCS File, release 2026Q4-Oct. This states Medicare’s position on the code, not on your particular claim.
Medically Unlikely Edits: units per day
The most units of C2618 Medicare will pay on one date of service. Bill more on a single line and it is denied. The limit is not the same in every setting, so the row that matters is the one matching the claim you are building.
- practitioner
- 4 units MAI 3: Date of Service Edit: Clinical · Clinical: CMS Workgroup
- outpatient
- 4 units MAI 3: Date of Service Edit: Clinical · Clinical: Data
The adjudication indicator decides whether exceeding the limit is worth appealing at all: MAI 1 is a line edit you can support with documentation, MAI 3 is a date-of-service edit that is also appealable, and MAI 2 is absolute, no documentation overrides it. CMS MUE 2026Q4.
The CMS record for C2618
- Long descriptor
- Probe/needle, cryoablation
- Short descriptor
- Probe/needle, cryo
- Added
- April 1, 2001
- BETOS
- D1A
- Pricing indicator
- 53: Other
The official wording. This is what the code means.
CMS's 28-character form, which is what shows up on a remittance advice.
When CMS introduced the code.
Berenson-Eggers Type of Service: CMS's own analytic grouping.
Statute.
Codes adjacent to C2618
HCPCS has no hierarchy: related items simply sit next to each other in the numbering. If C2618 is not quite right, the correct code is very often within a few positions of it.
- C1900Lead, left ventricular coronary venous system
- C1982Catheter, pressure-generating, (e.g., one-way valve or occlusion balloon, intermittently or temporarily occluding)
- C2596Probe, image-guided, robotic, waterjet ablation
- C2613Lung biopsy plug with delivery system
- C2614Probe, percutaneous lumbar discectomy
- C2615Sealant, pulmonary, liquid
- C2616Brachytherapy source, non-stranded, yttrium-90, per source
- C2617Stent, non-coronary, temporary, without delivery system
- C2619Pacemaker, dual chamber, non rate-responsive (implantable)
- C2620Pacemaker, single chamber, non rate-responsive (implantable)
- C2621Pacemaker, other than single or dual chamber (implantable)
- C2622Prosthesis, penile, non-inflatable
- C2623Catheter, transluminal angioplasty, drug-coated, non-laser
- C2624Implantable wireless pulmonary artery pressure sensor with delivery catheter, including all system components
- C2625Stent, non-coronary, temporary, with delivery system
- C2626Infusion pump, non-programmable, temporary (implantable)