CPT 00560: Anesthesia for Heart and Great Vessel Procedures, No Bypass
CPT code 00560 represents anesthesia care for major intrathoracic procedures involving the heart, pericardium, and great vessels performed without the use of a pump oxygenator. This code captures a high-intensity anesthetic service associated with complex cardiothoracic surgery and is nationally relevant because it denotes specialized perioperative management, resource use, and risk profile distinct from procedures requiring cardiopulmonary bypass.
Key payers included in the analysis are Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna Health, United Healthcare, and Medicare. Readers will find a concise overview of clinical context, common use cases, and relationships to adjacent anesthesia codes for intrathoracic cardiac procedures. The publication outlines typical settings of care and service characteristics, highlights common accompanying diagnoses that justify the service, and identifies commonly reported modifiers and related CPT entries for reference.
This summary prepares clinicians, billing professionals, and policy stakeholders to understand where 00560 fits within cardiothoracic anesthesia coding, how it differs from bypass-related anesthesia codes, and what to expect in terms of clinical scenarios and payer coverage landscape. Data not available in the input for specific reimbursement benchmarks or payer-specific policy details.
Customize your policy alerts
Sign up for cpt 00560 policy alerts
Get alerted when payer policies referencing 00560 are released or updated.
Monitor payer policy activity
Billing Code Overview
CPT code 00560 describes anesthesia services provided for procedures involving the heart, pericardium, and great vessels of the chest (for example, the aorta, its major branches, and major pulmonary vessels) when the patient does not require cardiopulmonary bypass or a pump oxygenator. The service entails perioperative anesthetic management tailored to major intrathoracic cardiovascular surgery without use of a heart-lung machine.
Service type: Cardiothoracic anesthesia for major intrathoracic vascular and cardiac procedures without cardiopulmonary bypass.
Typical site of service: Operating room or cardiac surgery suite in an acute care hospital.
National Reimbursement Benchmarks
National commercial rates for CPT 00560 cluster around the BUCA average commercial of $73.00, with notable variation among major carriers. Blue Cross Blue Shield shows a relatively tight interquartile spread (P75–P25 = $33.50), while Aetna presents a much wider spread (P75–P25 = $78.90). Cigna’s spread is $53.40 and UnitedHealth Group’s spread is $28.80, placing UnitedHealth Group among the tightest and Aetna the widest in terms of middle-50% dispersion.
Median and mean differences also highlight variation: Cigna and Aetna have similar mean rates near $92, but Cigna’s median ($85.70) is higher than Blue Cross Blue Shield’s median ($56.20) and UnitedHealth Group’s median ($64.00). Payer-specific maximums extend highest for Aetna at $280.70 and remain more constrained for UnitedHealth Group at $122.70, underscoring divergent upper-end contract outcomes across carriers.