CPT 00880 Reimbursement Benchmarks & Policy | OpenPayer

Summary & Overview

CPT 00880: Anesthesia for Major Lower Abdominal Vessel Procedures

Headline: Anesthesia for Major Lower Abdominal Vessel Procedures Gains Focus

Lead: CPT 00880 describes anesthesia services for procedures on major lower abdominal vessels when no more specific anesthesia code applies. This code matters because it captures anesthesia complexity for vascular procedures in the lower abdomen, influencing billing, coding specificity, and payer coverage nationally.

What the code represents and why it matters: CPT 00880 is used to report anesthesia care during surgical or endovascular interventions on major lower abdominal vessels. Accurate use affects clinical documentation and claims processing for procedures that may vary in invasiveness and patient risk. Nationally, consistent application supports appropriate reimbursement and clear communication among perioperative teams, coders, and payers.

Key payers in this overview: Aetna; Blue Cross Blue Shield; Cigna Health; UnitedHealthcare.

What readers will learn: This publication outlines the clinical context for CPT 00880, common billing considerations, how the code relates to adjacent anesthesia codes, and typical sites of service. Readers will find benchmarks and policy-related insights relevant to anesthesia coding for lower abdominal vascular procedures, plus guidance on common modifier usage and related CPT relationships. Data limitations: if specific service-line metrics or regional policy variations are required, Data not available in the input.

AetnaBlue Cross Blue ShieldCigna HealthUnitedHealthcareCPT 00880AnesthesiologyOperating RoomVascular ProceduresAnesthesia CodingPerioperative CareICD-10 RelatedProcedure ClassificationAnesthesia Billing

CPT Code Overview

CPT 00880 denotes anesthesia for procedures on major lower abdominal vessels; not otherwise specified. This service falls under Anesthesiology and is typically provided in the Operating Room (POS 22). The code is used when anesthesia services are required to facilitate surgical or endovascular procedures involving major lower abdominal vasculature and where no more specific anesthesia code for those procedures applies.

Clinical & Coding Specifications

Clinical Context

A 62-year-old patient is scheduled for operative management involving major lower abdominal blood vessels, such as repair of an iliac artery injury encountered during colorectal surgery. The patient arrives to the operating room (POS 22) after preoperative evaluation identifies comorbid Crohn's disease and a history of diverticulosis. Anesthesia care is provided according to the planned procedure complexity: induction of general anesthesia, vascular access, invasive monitoring as indicated, and intraoperative management of hemodynamics while the surgical team works on the major lower abdominal vessels. Postoperative handoff includes pain control, hemodynamic stabilization, and monitoring for gastrointestinal hemorrhage or other complications.

Coding Specifications

Modifiers
QS: Indicates a monitored anesthesia care service. Use when the anesthesia service provided meets the definition of monitored anesthesia care for the procedure described by 00880.
QX: Indicates a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) service with medical direction by a physician. Use when a CRNA furnishes the anesthesia under medical direction for the service reported with 00880.
Provider Taxonomies

National Reimbursement Benchmarks

National mean rates for 00880 show a gap between Medicare and the BUCA (average commercial) benchmark: BUCA’s mean rate is $334.89 while the Medicare value is $0.00 in the input, indicating Medicare data is not present in the provided national benchmarks.

Dispersion (P75 minus P25) varies substantially by payer. Blue Cross Blue Shield and Cigna display the widest spreads (BCBS: $471.33; Cigna: $1,209.00), indicating large variability in upper-tail payments. UnitedHealth Group and Aetna show the tightest spreads (UHC: $25.47; Aetna: $808.00), with UHC being the most compressed and Aetna showing a large upper quartile despite a low 25th percentile. The table and chart below present the full breakdown.

State Benchmarks

State: Alaska1 / 50

Alaska Benchmarks

Alaska displays a substantial rate spread for CPT code 00880, particularly with Blue Cross Blue Shield, where the 75th percentile rate ($1,093.75) is $332.15 higher than the 25th percentile ($761.60). This wide spread is much greater than the national average, indicating significant variability in reimbursement depending on payer and provider contracts. Other payers, such as Aetna, Cigna, and UnitedHealth Group, show much narrower spreads, with their 25th and 75th percentiles differing by only a few dollars.

Compared to national benchmarks, Blue Cross Blue Shield in Alaska reimburses at a much higher mean rate, while UnitedHealth Group and Cigna are below national averages. The table and chart below present the full breakdown of mean rates and percentile values for each payer in Alaska.

Key Insights for Alaska

Blue Cross Blue Shield is the highest paying payer for CPT 00880 in Alaska, with a mean rate of $941.16.
UnitedHealth Group offers the lowest mean rate at $75.12, significantly below both state and national averages.
The rate spread in Alaska is notably larger than the national average, with BCBS rates far exceeding other payers in the state.

CPT 00873: Anesthesia for Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy

00870-ANESTHESIA-FOR-EXTRAPERITONEAL-PROCEDURES-IN-LOWER-ABDOMEN

CPT 00870: Anesthesia for Lower Abdomen Procedures, Cystolithotomy

00868-ANES-XTRPRTL-LWR-ABD-WURIN-TRACT-RENAL

CPT 00868: Anesthesia for Renal Transplantation, Lower Abdominal Surgery

00864-ANESTH-REMOVAL-OF

CPT 00864: Anesthesia for Bladder Removal Surgery

00862-ANESTHESIA-SERVICES-FOR-PROCEDURES-IN-THE-LOWER-ABDOMEN

CPT 00862: Anesthesia for Lower Abdomen and Renal Procedures

00832-ANESTHESIA-FOR-PROCEDURES-IN-LOWER-ABDOMEN-INCLUDING

CPT 00832: Anesthesia for Lower Abdominal Procedures Including Colonoscopy

00842-ANESTHESIA-FOR-PROCEDURES-ON-THE-LOWER-ANTERIOR-ABDOMINAL

CPT 00842: Anesthesia for Lower Anterior Abdominal Wall Procedures

00802-ANESTHESIA-FOR-PROCEDURES-ON-LOWER-ANTERIOR-ABDOMINAL

CPT 00802: Anesthesia for Lower Anterior Abdominal Wall Procedures

CPT-00811-ANESTHESIA-LOWER-INTESTINAL-ENDOSCOPY

CPT 00811: Anesthesia for Lower Intestinal Endoscopic Procedure

00834-ANESTHESIA-FOR-HERNIA-REPAIRS-IN-THE-LOWER-ABDOMEN-NOT

CPT 00834: Anesthesia for Pediatric Lower Abdominal Hernia Repair

Showing 1–10 of 26

Trek Health ingests and normalizes Transparency in Coverage data and payer policy updates to give provider organizations a clear view of how commercial reimbursement behaves across markets, payers, and services. Our platform transforms raw payer disclosures into structured intelligence that supports contract evaluation, payer negotiations, and service line strategy. By combining market benchmarks with ongoing policy visibility, Trek helps teams identify variability, risk, and opportunity in commercial reimbursement. The result is faster insight, stronger negotiating positions, and more informed financial decisions.

Related CPT Codes

CPT Code	Description	Relationship to `00880`
`00882`	Anesthesia for procedures on major lower abdominal vessels; inferior vena cava ligation	Alternative or related: used for anesthesia services when the procedure specifically involves inferior vena cava ligation instead of other major lower abdominal vessels. Often considered in the same clinical domain and selected when the operative site/procedure matches `00882` rather than `00880`.

`207L00000X`	Anesthesiology
`367500000X`	Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist
`207RA0401X`	Anesthesiology Assistant

OpenPayer

Summary & Overview

CPT 00880: Anesthesia for Major Lower Abdominal Vessel Procedures

CPT Code Overview

Clinical & Coding Specifications

Clinical Context

Coding Specifications

National Reimbursement Benchmarks

State Benchmarks

Alaska Benchmarks

Key Insights for Alaska

Related Codes

Related Diagnoses

Related CPT Codes

National Reimbursement Benchmarks

State Benchmarks

Alaska Benchmarks

Key Insights for Alaska

Related Codes