How much does Medicare pay for CPT 33268?

Medicare allowed an average of $92.67 per service and paid $74.01 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $368.30, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 33268?

Exclusion of appendage of left upper chamber of heart performed during other procedure on chest. It was billed 8,508 times to 8,504 Medicare beneficiaries by 415 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 33268 most?

Thoracic Surgery, with 3,967 services from 180 clinicians. Next are Cardiac Surgery, Physician Assistant, General Surgery.

CPT 33268

Exclusion of appendage of left upper chamber of heart performed during other procedure on chest

$92.67Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 8,508 services

Providers submitted

$368.30

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$92.67

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$74.01

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $368.30 for this code and Medicare allowed $92.67 — 4.0× 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 $74.01 (80%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 8,508
Beneficiaries: 8,504
Providers billing it: 415
Total allowed: $788,436

What Medicare pays for CPT 33268

Across 8,508 services billed by 415 providers to 8,504 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $92.67 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 33268

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Thoracic Surgery	3,967	3,964	$117.96	180
Cardiac Surgery	2,077	2,076	$113.36	98
Physician Assistant	1,756	1,756	$16.88	103
General Surgery	240	240	$97.66	10
Nurse Practitioner	232	232	$17.52	13
Cardiology	109	109	$123.12	6
Vascular Surgery	72	72	$111.11	4
Psychiatry	55	55	$118.56	1

33268 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	1,520	$92.52	$67.72	64
Texas	1,231	$92.47	$73.95	57
California	832	$88.02	$70.68	40
South Carolina	417	$81.48	$68.68	18
Illinois	336	$102.32	$75.19	19
Louisiana	254	$81.84	$66.67	10
Indiana	253	$79.93	$70.42	10
Alabama	246	$81.69	$71.38	15
Arizona	242	$105.38	$86.15	12
Ohio	231	$98.31	$79.27	13
Wisconsin	220	$96.58	$83.30	10
Kansas	198	$113.51	$98.22	4
Kentucky	197	$96.48	$80.26	11
Pennsylvania	194	$88.67	$68.23	11
North Carolina	168	$93.44	$79.86	9
Tennessee	168	$89.16	$75.84	8
New Jersey	166	$67.56	$50.78	6
New York	159	$131.20	$91.05	6
Arkansas	148	$94.84	$84.52	9
Michigan	133	$102.04	$74.24	9
Missouri	129	$105.50	$83.54	7
Virginia	116	$82.01	$67.44	8
Georgia	98	$97.11	$78.02	6
Iowa	85	$102.58	$90.76	4
Oklahoma	73	$117.48	$98.58	5
Colorado	70	$84.77	$68.18	5
Idaho	67	$73.84	$65.42	4
South Dakota	64	$69.99	$61.41	4
Nevada	63	$112.52	$92.02	3
Maryland	61	$89.06	$67.87	4
Oregon	43	$47.32	$39.22	3
Connecticut	42	$45.65	$36.67	3
Utah	41	$87.90	$71.67	3
New Mexico	31	$126.80	$98.54	1
Montana	28	$119.50	$95.70	2
Delaware	27	$123.71	$98.91	1
North Dakota	25	$99.24	$85.36	2
Hawaii	22	$119.42	$98.62	1
Nebraska	16	$14.71	$13.37	1
Vermont	16	$114.44	$98.70	1
Massachusetts	15	$129.77	$98.69	1
Maine	14	$114.70	$98.33	1
Mississippi	14	$115.86	$98.56	1
District of Columbia	13	$125.62	$100.56	1
West Virginia	11	$126.84	$98.46	1
New Hampshire	11	$132.40	$98.76	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
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
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.