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CMS RVU26D · Effective 2026-10-01

33949 ECMO management Medicare reimbursement rates in Pennsylvania

Reports a physician’s daily management of venoarterial ECMO or ECLS, including clinical oversight of the patient and extracorporeal support circuit. Compare 33949 office and facility rates across CMS payment localities in Pennsylvania.

Amounts below use the non-QP conversion factor for participating physicians. These are base physician payments before claim-level adjustments, not patient costs or total hospital charges.

What does Medicare pay for 33949 in Pennsylvania?

Pennsylvania has 2 payment localities in this comparison. Use the service location to choose the applicable amount. These are the supported base rates for the 2 payment areas shown below, using the same CMS release.

Office / nonfacility

No supported rate

Facility setting

$204.92–$218.02

2 of 2 localities have a supported rate.

Lowest: Rest Of Pennsylvania

Highest: Metropolitan Philadelphia

A spread of $13.10 per service.

These are locality ranges, not averages or address-specific quotes. A facility-setting amount covers the physician service; it does not include a hospital’s separate bill. Choose a locality below to inspect its calculation, compare other payment areas, or price a percentage of Medicare.

Find 33949 in your payment locality →

Cardiovascular services

About 33949: Venoarterial ECMO daily management

Reports a physician’s daily management of venoarterial ECMO or ECLS, including clinical oversight of the patient and extracorporeal support circuit.

Code 33949 represents a physician’s daily management of venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation or extracorporeal life support. This support configuration returns oxygenated blood to the arterial circulation and may be used for severe cardiac or combined cardiopulmonary failure. Management typically occurs in an intensive care setting while the patient remains on support, with physician involvement from specialties such as critical care or cardiothoracic surgery.

Report the service for each date on which the physician provides the daily management, rather than for ECMO initiation or a cannula procedure. The record should support the physician’s assessment of the patient and circuit, management decisions, and any adjustments made to the support plan. Select this code for venoarterial support; the parallel daily-management code 33948 is for venovenous support. The CMS facts supplied for this code list no additional payment rules.

Where the value comes from

  • Work RVU4.49 · 72%
  • Practice expense (office) RVU1.02 · 16%
  • Malpractice RVU0.75 · 12%

7.2K

Medicare services in 2024 · #1647 by national volume

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.

33949 compared with similar codes

Office rates for Pennsylvania, from the same CMS release.

33948

ECMO management

Venovenous support

No office rate

Choose 33948 for daily management of venovenous ECMO/ECLS; choose 33949 when support is venoarterial.

33947

ECMO initiation

Venoarterial configuration

No office rate

Code 33947 represents initiation of venoarterial ECMO/ECLS. Code 33949 represents its daily management.

33946

ECMO initiation

Venovenous, age six and older

No office rate

Code 33946 is for venovenous ECMO/ECLS initiation. Code 33949 is for daily management of venoarterial support.

Compare 33949 by payment locality

Find the payment area for your service address, then open its rate page for calculation inputs, release history and the percentage-of-Medicare tool. A city may cross payment-area boundaries; the ZIP lookup above helps resolve the location.

2 of 2 payment localities

Office and facility base rates · shared scale starting at $0

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33949 billing questions

How does 33949 differ from 33948?

Use 33949 for venoarterial ECMO/ECLS daily management. Code 33948 is the corresponding daily-management service for venovenous support.

Is 33949 the code for starting ECMO?

No. It describes daily management after support is in use; 33947 describes initiation of venoarterial ECMO/ECLS.

Can 33949 be reported for cannula insertion or repositioning?

No. It represents daily management, not a cannula procedure. Use the applicable procedure code when insertion or repositioning is performed and documented.

How often is 33949 reported?

It represents daily management, so report it for each date the physician provides that service. Documentation should establish the physician’s work on that date.

What documentation supports 33949?

Document that the patient is receiving venoarterial ECMO/ECLS and the physician’s daily assessment and management of the patient and support circuit.

Where these rates come from

FeeBase calculates base physician payments from CMS work, practice-expense, and malpractice RVUs, adjusted by each locality’s geographic indices and the applicable conversion factor. Unavailable or separately priced services are labeled rather than assigned a made-up amount.

Source: RVU26D. Effective 2026-10-01 through the day before 2027-01-01.

RVUs for 33949PPRRVU2026_Oct_nonQPP.csv, line 4,135 (RVU26D)