(a) Medicare only covers and pays for reasonable costs of acquisition on or after October 1, 2004, of pancreata for islet cell transplants into Medicare beneficiaries participating in a National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases clinical trial of islet cell transplantation in accordance with section 733 of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003.

(b) Pancreata procured under paragraph (a), for covered islet cell transplants must be assigned a full standard acquisition charge and be treated as solid organs for procurement purposes.