How much does Medicare pay for CPT 33249?

Medicare allowed an average of $1981.50 per service and paid $1578.01 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $6140.98, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 33249?

Insertion of implantable defibrillator system. It was billed 14,780 times to 14,721 Medicare beneficiaries by 886 providers in 2024.

Does 33249 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $869.74 in an office setting and $1982.41 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 33249 most?

Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology, with 10,579 services from 640 clinicians. Next are Cardiology, Ambulatory Surgical Center, Internal Medicine.

CPT 33249

Insertion of implantable defibrillator system

$1981.50Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 14,780 services

Providers submitted

$6140.98

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$1981.50

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$1578.01

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $6140.98 for this code and Medicare allowed $1981.50 — 3.1× 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 $1578.01 (80%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $869.74
Hospital / facility: $1982.41

The facility rate is higher for this code, which is unusual and generally means the service depends on equipment or staffing a hospital carries. 12 services were billed in an office setting and 14,768 in a facility.

Services: 14,780
Beneficiaries: 14,721
Providers billing it: 886
Total allowed: $29,286,570

What Medicare pays for CPT 33249

Across 14,780 services billed by 886 providers to 14,721 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $1981.50 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 33249

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology	10,579	10,539	$869.01	640
Cardiology	2,783	2,769	$862.47	175
Ambulatory Surgical Center	703	698	$24,269	28
Internal Medicine	352	352	$866.65	23
Interventional Cardiology	174	174	$853.50	10
Cardiac Surgery	116	116	$979.26	5
Undefined Physician type	31	31	$915.99	2
Hospitalist	16	16	$820.04	1
Family Practice	13	13	$853.56	1
Thoracic Surgery	13	13	$922.98	1

33249 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	1,343	$3012.81	$2514.40	81
California	989	$5615.38	$4003.98	56
Texas	953	$2122.09	$1754.29	63
New York	838	$970.38	$683.74	47
Illinois	712	$2280.51	$1774.61	40
Virginia	698	$2056.22	$1686.56	38
South Carolina	574	$835.47	$693.58	31
Pennsylvania	550	$1638.49	$1304.30	33
Georgia	481	$856.29	$691.62	26
Maryland	472	$934.78	$692.55	26
Tennessee	461	$798.57	$691.78	27
North Carolina	448	$827.49	$692.10	31
Arizona	423	$7274.29	$5983.48	24
Indiana	419	$790.39	$695.50	28
New Jersey	397	$948.74	$690.01	23
Ohio	374	$862.07	$698.36	25
Kansas	349	$4429.28	$3867.59	18
Michigan	343	$881.54	$695.46	23
Massachusetts	321	$911.47	$689.93	21
Arkansas	303	$785.95	$680.10	15
Washington	280	$872.24	$695.17	18
Missouri	264	$841.24	$688.88	16
Oklahoma	259	$821.51	$694.29	16
Louisiana	241	$4088.18	$3573.63	12
Minnesota	211	$805.60	$691.57	14
Iowa	183	$779.95	$684.88	13
Nebraska	165	$3289.27	$2743.54	10
Mississippi	156	$814.89	$691.74	9
Delaware	143	$865.89	$688.71	7
Kentucky	143	$830.67	$696.98	10
Wisconsin	133	$802.19	$691.71	9
Montana	125	$869.43	$688.97	7
Idaho	103	$804.42	$696.62	7
Oregon	103	$851.04	$698.67	6
West Virginia	98	$869.80	$698.20	6
Connecticut	92	$966.56	$726.51	7
Alabama	74	$809.92	$681.97	5
District of Columbia	70	$947.86	$694.39	4
South Dakota	62	$819.04	$693.46	3
Utah	60	$812.86	$699.33	4
New Mexico	55	$880.34	$698.01	4
Alaska	52	$7407.88	$5374.14	4
Colorado	50	$849.00	$685.08	4
North Dakota	48	$857.58	$681.06	3
Nevada	45	$845.37	$694.47	3
Rhode Island	36	$879.49	$697.74	3
Maine	26	$813.11	$698.08	2
New Hampshire	25	$926.03	$690.41	2
Wyoming	19	$904.81	$699.51	1
Hawaii	11	$876.05	$699.67	1

Related codes

33208Insertion of pacemaker and upper and lower heart chamber electrode$734.65
33285Insertion of heart rhythm monitor under skin$1927.21
33228Removal and replacement of dual lead permanent pacemaker$1057.50
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.