MS-DRG 018 — CHIMERIC ANTIGEN RECEPTOR (CAR) T-CELL AND OTHER IMMUNOTHERAPIES
FY2026 payment factors
- Relative weight
- 43.1828
- Geometric mean LOS
- 12.40
- Arithmetic mean LOS
- 14.70
- Post-acute transfer
- No
Other DRGs in MDC PRE
The with-MCC, with-CC and without-CC/MCC splits usually sit next to each other here. Those are what a documentation query is actually deciding between, and the weight gap between them is why the query is worth raising.
- 001HEART TRANSPLANT OR IMPLANT OF HEART ASSIST SYSTEM WITH MCC28.0239
- 002HEART TRANSPLANT OR IMPLANT OF HEART ASSIST SYSTEM WITHOUT MCC11.3318
- 003ECMO OR TRACHEOSTOMY WITH MV >96 HOURS OR PRINCIPAL DIAGNOSIS EXCEPT FACE, MOUTH AND NECK WITH MAJOR O.R. PROCEDURES21.2252
- 004TRACHEOSTOMY WITH MV >96 HOURS OR PRINCIPAL DIAGNOSIS EXCEPT FACE, MOUTH AND NECK WITHOUT MAJOR O.R. PROCEDURES13.8514
- 005LIVER TRANSPLANT WITH MCC OR INTESTINAL TRANSPLANT10.3105
- 006LIVER TRANSPLANT WITHOUT MCC4.6370
- 007LUNG TRANSPLANT12.9502
- 008SIMULTANEOUS PANCREAS AND KIDNEY TRANSPLANT5.6046
- 010PANCREAS TRANSPLANT7.1757
- 011TRACHEOSTOMY FOR FACE, MOUTH AND NECK DIAGNOSES OR LARYNGECTOMY WITH MCC5.4541
- 012TRACHEOSTOMY FOR FACE, MOUTH AND NECK DIAGNOSES OR LARYNGECTOMY WITH CC4.2160
- 013TRACHEOSTOMY FOR FACE, MOUTH AND NECK DIAGNOSES OR LARYNGECTOMY WITHOUT CC/MCC2.8818
- 014ALLOGENEIC BONE MARROW TRANSPLANT12.0179
- 016AUTOLOGOUS BONE MARROW TRANSPLANT WITH CC/MCC5.9297
- 017AUTOLOGOUS BONE MARROW TRANSPLANT WITHOUT CC/MCC5.4323
- 019SIMULTANEOUS PANCREAS AND KIDNEY TRANSPLANT WITH HEMODIALYSIS7.1346
Working the claim behind this DRG
A DRG is assigned from the diagnoses and procedures already on the claim, so the questions that decide MS-DRG 018 are coding questions. Look the principal diagnosis up in the full ICD-10-CM tabular list with its Excludes1 and “code first” notes attached, or start from the condition instead of the code in the codes-by-condition index. For the secondary diagnoses that move a case between the with-MCC, with-CC and without-CC/MCC splits, paste the whole set into the free claim scrubber and see which pairs collide before the claim goes out — no account, no card.
The supplies, drugs and devices billed alongside an inpatient stay are HCPCS Level II, listed in full at HCPCS by section. If the claim comes back rejected, the denial code index explains what each CARC actually means and what to do about it, and the decision guides walk the sequencing calls that most often cause one — sepsis and diabetes above all.
Every one of those is free and needs no account. This page is the payment table: it says what MS-DRG 018 is worth. Which medical DRG a set of diagnoses lands in is the workspace’s DRG impact check, from the CMS CC/MCC lists; it does not group surgical cases.