33933 Prepare donor heart/lung
What 33933 is
CMS fee schedule short descriptor: Prepare donor heart/lung.
Full CPT long descriptions are licensed by the American Medical Association and are not published on this site; the short descriptor above is the one CMS prints in its own fee schedule file. See About CPT.
Medicare payment for 33933 (CY2026)
This code has no Physician Fee Schedule rate: Carrier-priced - the Medicare contractor sets the price. It may be paid under a different fee schedule (clinical laboratory, DMEPOS, anesthesia) or not paid at all - check the relevant CMS schedule.
Medically Unlikely Edit (MUE)
Medicare caps 33933 at 1 unit per date of service for practitioner claims (MAI 2 - date of service edit (absolute): units above the MUE never pay), rationale: Anatomic Consideration. Units above the cap are denied unless the edit's adjudication rules allow an appeal with documentation.
Billed with 33933? These codes are bundled into it
33933 is a Column 1 code in 15 active NCCI PTP edits. When one of these Column 2 codes is reported on the same date of service, it is denied as bundled - unless the edit's modifier indicator is 1 and documentation supports a distinct service with an NCCI-associated modifier.
| Column 2 code | Short description | Modifier indicator | |
|---|---|---|---|
32855 | Prepare donor lung single | 1 - modifier may bypass | Check pair |
32856 | Prepare donor lung double | 1 - modifier may bypass | Check pair |
33944 | Prepare donor heart | 1 - modifier may bypass | Check pair |
36591 | Draw blood off venous device | 0 - no modifier bypass | Check pair |
36592 | Collect blood from picc | 0 - no modifier bypass | Check pair |
64420 | Njx aa&/strd ntrcost nrv 1 | 1 - modifier may bypass | Check pair |
64421 | Njx aa&/strd ntrcost nrv ea | 1 - modifier may bypass | Check pair |
64461 | Pvb thoracic single inj site | 1 - modifier may bypass | Check pair |
64463 | Pvb thoracic cont infusion | 1 - modifier may bypass | Check pair |
64466 | Thrc fascial pln blk uni njx | 0 - no modifier bypass | Check pair |
64467 | Thrc fascial pln blk uni nfs | 0 - no modifier bypass | Check pair |
64468 | Thrc fascial pln blk bi njx | 0 - no modifier bypass | Check pair |
64469 | Thrc fascial pln blk bi nfs | 0 - no modifier bypass | Check pair |
69990 | Microsurgery add-on | 0 - no modifier bypass | Check pair |
96523 | Irrig drug delivery device | 0 - no modifier bypass | Check pair |
Data: CMS CY2026 Physician Fee Schedule RVU file (October release, RVU26D) and Medicare NCCI PTP practitioner edits v32.3 (2026 Q4). Verify against the official files before billing or contracting decisions.