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CPT 00520: Anesthesia for Closed Chest Intrathoracic Procedures (Bronchoscopy)
CPT code 00520 designates anesthesia services furnished for closed chest intrathoracic procedures, such as bronchoscopy, when no more specific anesthesia code applies. This code is used nationally to document and bill the anesthetic management of patients undergoing diagnostic or therapeutic airway and pleural procedures performed without open thoracotomy. Accurate use of the code supports consistent reporting of anesthesia care complexity and resource use across hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers.
Key payers considered in this overview include Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna Health, UnitedHealthcare, and Medicare. The publication summarizes how CPT code 00520 is defined, typical clinical contexts for its use, common service settings, and connections to related intrathoracic anesthesia codes.
Readers will find: a concise clinical context for when 00520 applies (closed chest intrathoracic procedures including bronchoscopy), comparisons to nearby anesthesia codes for related procedures, and the expected sites of service. This material is intended to inform coding accuracy, billing workflow alignment, and clinical documentation consistency on a national scale.
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Billing Code Overview
CPT code 00520 describes anesthesia services provided for closed chest intrathoracic procedures, including bronchoscopy for airway visualization and investigation. The code covers anesthesia care during procedures that involve access to the thoracic cavity without open thoracotomy and that are not specifically described by another anesthesia code.
Service Type: Anesthesia for closed chest intrathoracic procedures (including bronchoscopy)
Typical Site of Service: Operating room or procedural suite where intrathoracic endoscopic procedures are performed
National Reimbursement Benchmarks
Commercial reimbursement for CPT 00520 centers around a BUCA average of $82.00, with individual commercial payers distributing around that level but with notable differences in spread. Aetna’s mean of $126.20 and Blue Cross Blue Shield’s mean of $70.20 bracket BUCA’s average on opposite sides, while Cigna ($87.70) and UnitedHealth Group ($67.50) sit near the BUCA figure. Absolute highs and lows vary by payer, with Aetna reaching a max of $321.70 and entities like Blue Cross Blue Shield and UnitedHealth Group showing much lower upper bounds.
Dispersion measured by the interquartile range (P75–P25) highlights variability: Aetna’s IQR is $85.00, Cigna’s IQR is $37.80, Blue Cross Blue Shield’s IQR is $36.60, UnitedHealth Group’s IQR is $29.00, and BUCA’s IQR is $44.60. This indicates Aetna has the widest mid‑range spread while UnitedHealth Group is the tightest; Cigna and Blue Cross Blue Shield are moderately dispersed and BUCA sits in the middle in terms of variability.