How much does Medicare pay for CPT 33208?

Medicare allowed an average of $734.65 per service and paid $583.19 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $2994.45, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 33208?

Insertion of pacemaker and upper and lower heart chamber electrode. It was billed 77,130 times to 77,029 Medicare beneficiaries by 2,995 providers in 2024.

Does 33208 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $467.44 in an office setting and $734.83 in a facility. The office rate is generally higher because the practice supplies the room, staff and equipment out of that single payment; in a hospital those are billed separately by the facility.

Which specialty bills 33208 most?

Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology, with 47,811 services from 1,735 clinicians. Next are Cardiology, Ambulatory Surgical Center, Interventional Cardiology.

CPT 33208

Insertion of pacemaker and upper and lower heart chamber electrode

$734.65Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 77,130 services

Providers submitted

$2994.45

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$734.65

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$583.19

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $2994.45 for this code and Medicare allowed $734.65 — 4.1× less. That gap is normal and means nothing on its own: Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of what is billed, so the submitted figure describes a hospital chargemaster, not a price anyone paid. Of the allowed amount Medicare paid $583.19 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $467.44
Hospital / facility: $734.83

The facility rate is higher for this code, which is unusual and generally means the service depends on equipment or staffing a hospital carries. 53 services were billed in an office setting and 77,077 in a facility.

Services: 77,130
Beneficiaries: 77,029
Providers billing it: 2,995
Total allowed: $56,663,555

What Medicare pays for CPT 33208

Across 77,130 services billed by 2,995 providers to 77,029 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $734.65 per service. The allowed amount is the figure that matters: it is what Medicare and the patient together owe, set by the fee schedule and adjusted for local practice costs. What a provider chose to submit has no bearing on it.

Who bills 33208

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology	47,811	47,747	$483.80	1,735
Cardiology	20,311	20,283	$480.66	903
Ambulatory Surgical Center	2,811	2,809	$7383.60	84
Interventional Cardiology	2,547	2,544	$484.59	122
Internal Medicine	2,153	2,152	$484.24	84
Cardiac Surgery	404	403	$487.95	18
Thoracic Surgery	404	403	$506.34	19
General Surgery	219	219	$497.22	11
Hospitalist	162	161	$475.63	6
Undefined Physician type	159	159	$485.56	5
Critical Care (Intensivists)	43	43	$469.57	2
Vascular Surgery	33	33	$510.48	2
Family Practice	24	24	$484.01	1
Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology	18	18	$509.84	1
Emergency Medicine	17	17	$487.20	1

33208 reimbursement by state

Two different numbers. Allowed is what Medicare actually allowed in that state, which includes the local practice-cost adjustment. Standardized strips that geographic adjustment out of the payment, so it is the column to use when comparing states — a difference there reflects how the code was billed, not what it costs to run a practice locally.

State	Services	Allowed	Standardized pmt	Providers
Florida	7,047	$945.39	$769.04	257
Texas	5,997	$1023.68	$836.94	226
California	5,527	$1160.83	$827.96	240
Pennsylvania	3,604	$527.49	$414.76	143
New York	3,467	$542.18	$383.15	141
Illinois	3,159	$766.26	$581.82	121
Virginia	2,636	$738.96	$594.39	85
Arizona	2,577	$1793.92	$1456.20	95
North Carolina	2,526	$458.59	$383.85	99
Ohio	2,483	$476.50	$384.05	115
New Jersey	2,369	$530.70	$384.63	86
Georgia	2,237	$483.88	$380.43	86
South Carolina	2,069	$463.35	$381.77	66
Massachusetts	2,018	$499.72	$383.90	88
Tennessee	1,998	$449.95	$384.15	76
Indiana	1,812	$443.34	$383.97	75
Maryland	1,739	$521.42	$384.16	49
Michigan	1,705	$595.02	$472.36	76
Missouri	1,581	$680.04	$556.00	68
Minnesota	1,403	$758.97	$615.84	54
Washington	1,392	$496.14	$386.29	56
Kansas	1,308	$1107.41	$967.71	47
Alabama	1,197	$448.93	$387.19	48
Arkansas	1,185	$440.18	$385.29	39
Oklahoma	1,054	$868.16	$736.50	40
Wisconsin	1,012	$438.32	$381.28	49
Iowa	873	$535.43	$468.07	34
Louisiana	827	$1129.78	$958.34	40
Connecticut	814	$509.61	$383.68	39
Oregon	811	$851.85	$669.35	32
Kentucky	780	$470.63	$384.50	41
Mississippi	771	$818.79	$720.20	26
Colorado	721	$485.59	$381.16	34
Nebraska	700	$850.80	$726.14	20
Nevada	575	$676.02	$543.79	21
West Virginia	547	$485.82	$385.73	17
Montana	533	$468.91	$375.18	15
Utah	481	$464.93	$383.32	22
Idaho	475	$450.92	$387.29	16
New Hampshire	448	$485.87	$388.71	18
South Dakota	358	$459.18	$387.49	8
Delaware	353	$481.75	$383.50	12
North Dakota	287	$474.39	$386.35	9
Alaska	274	$1758.86	$1247.06	7
New Mexico	270	$726.03	$590.92	11
Maine	266	$479.38	$387.59	14
Vermont	265	$451.35	$375.60	10
Rhode Island	230	$489.82	$382.24	9
District of Columbia	219	$517.36	$379.54	9
Hawaii	84	$472.71	$393.11	3
Wyoming	66	$497.98	$396.34	3

Related codes

33285Insertion of heart rhythm monitor under skin$1927.21
33228Removal and replacement of dual lead permanent pacemaker$1057.50
33249Insertion of implantable defibrillator system$1981.50
33225Insertion of left lower heart electrode for pacemaker or defibrillator$440.17
33286Removal of heart rhythm monitor from under the skin$112.40
33268Exclusion of appendage of left upper chamber of heart performed during$92.67
33274Insertion of permanent leadless pacemaker$421.36
33264Removal and replacement of multiple lead defibrillator$4811.78
33207Insertion of pacemaker and lower heart chamber electrode$592.59

Billing this code is not the same as earning it

An allowed amount is revenue to a practice, not income to a clinician. It funds staff, premises, equipment and supplies before anyone is paid. What clinicians actually earn is published separately by the Department of Labor, and what industry pays them is published separately again by CMS — this site carries both.

What doctors are paid →·Look up a clinician →·All procedure codes →

Where this comes from. CMS Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners, by Provider and Service, 2024. It covers fee-for-service Original Medicare Part B only — not Medicare Advantage, not Medicaid, and not commercial insurance, which typically pays more for the same code.

How it is averaged. CMS publishes one average per provider per code. Every figure here is re-weighted by the number of services, so a clinician who billed the code 4,000 times counts 4,000 times more than one who billed it twice. CMS also suppresses any provider-code pair with fewer than 11 beneficiaries, so low-volume practice is missing from these totals by design.