CPT 33533: Coronary Artery Bypass, Single Arterial Graft
Medicare pays $1767 and commercial payers pay $2347 on average nationally for this procedure.
CPT code 33533 describes a coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) procedure using a single arterial graft to divert blood flow around a damaged coronary vessel, restore myocardial circulation, improve cardiac function, and reduce symptoms such as angina; the service is a surgical arterial coronary bypass and the typical site of service is an inpatient hospital operating room or cardiac surgery suite for open-heart surgery.
For related coverage guidance, see recent payer policy updates: Intravenous Anesthetics for the Treatment of Chronic Pain and Psychiatric or Substance Use Disorders, Intravenous Anesthetics for the Treatment of Chronic Pain and Psychiatric or Substance Use Disorders, Intravenous Anesthetics for the Treatment of Chronic Pain and Psychiatric or Substance Use Disorders.
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National Reimbursement Benchmarks
National means place Medicare and BUCA on different parts of the spectrum: Medicare’s mean is $1,766.90 while BUCA’s mean is $2,347.10, so BUCA averages about $580.20 (roughly 33%) higher than Medicare. This gap highlights that commercial aggregation represented by BUCA sits meaningfully above Medicare but below the highest commercial means from Cigna and UnitedHealth Group.
Dispersion measured by the interquartile spread (P75−P25) varies notably across payers. Blue Cross Blue Shield has a P75−P25 of $1,336.00, Aetna’s spread is $1,880.00, Cigna’s spread is $1,963.30, UnitedHealth Group is the widest at $2,042.10, and BUCA’s spread is $1,649.90. Medicare’s IQR is tight at $135.00. Thus Medicare is the tightest by far, while UnitedHealth Group displays the widest middle-range variability.