CPT code 00873: ESWL anesthesia, without water bath2026 Medicare rate & RVUs

Medicare allowed amount for participating (non-QP) physicians, before deductible, coinsurance and claim adjustments. Not a patient’s bill or a hospital charge.

What 00873 covers

This code covers anesthesia for extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) performed without a water bath, commonly to treat kidney or ureteral stones. An anesthesiologist or CRNA provides and reports the anesthesia in an outpatient facility or office setting; the urologist reports the stone-treatment procedure, such as CPT 50590.

Choose this code when ESWL is performed without a water bath, rather than the water-bath service represented by 00872. The anesthesia record should document anesthesia start and stop times; the operative record should establish the stone site and that ESWL was performed without a water bath. This code has 5 base units, and Medicare payment is the sum of base units and time units multiplied by the locality's anesthesia conversion factor. Anesthesia time runs from preparation for anesthesia until the practitioner is no longer in personal attendance and the patient can safely be placed under postoperative care; CMS converts minutes to 15-minute time units to one decimal place, and the conversion factor varies by locality.

This summary was written with AI assistance from CMS physician fee schedule data and checked against the CMS billing rules shown here. Rates on this page come directly from CMS files.

Where 00873 pays more and less

The same RVUs, adjusted for each area’s costs. Open a locality for its calculation, history and nearby areas.

109 of 109 payment localities

00873 rates by state

Office rate range in each state. Select a state to see its payment localities.

How the 00873 rate is calculated

Each of 00873’s three RVUs is multiplied by a geographic index (GPCI) for the payment locality, added up, and multiplied by the conversion factor. Drag the indexes or enter a ZIP to see what moves the rate.

Payment rules and modifiers for 00873

00873 has no global surgery period, no multiple-procedure, bilateral or assistant-at-surgery adjustment, and no professional/technical split. What changes the payment is where the service happens: the place of service on the claim decides whether Medicare pays the office or the facility rate.

00873 compared with similar codes

How to choose

00872Lithotripsy anesthesiaWater-bath technique

The distinction is the ESWL setup: 00873 is for treatment without a water bath; 00872 is for treatment with one.

00918Ureteral stone anesthesiaTransurethral removal

Use 00918 for transurethral ureteral procedures, including ureteral lithotripsy. Use 00873 for external shock wave lithotripsy without a water bath.

00870Cystolithotomy anesthesiaExtraperitoneal approach

00870 applies to anesthesia for an extraperitoneal bladder stone operation, such as cystolithotomy; 00873 is for ESWL without a water bath.

Codes related to 00873

Related codes aren’t interchangeable: bill the code that matches the service performed.

Where these rates come from

FeeBase calculates base physician payments from CMS work, practice-expense and malpractice RVUs, adjusted by each locality’s geographic indexes and the conversion factor. Services without a published rate are labeled, never given a made-up amount. Amounts are Medicare allowed amounts before claim adjustments: not a patient’s bill or a commercial rate.

CMS RVU26D · effective Oct 1, 2026 through the day before Jan 1, 2027

Open CMS sourceHow we calculate rates