(A patient presents to the OR for removal of asubcutaneous cardiac rhythm monitor system14 months...

A “subcutaneous cardiac rhythm monitor” describes animplantable loop recorder(insertable cardiac monitor) placed under the skin for long-term rhythm surveillance. When the entire monitor system isremoved, CPT provides a specific removal code rather than using pacemaker/ICD removal codes.33286is the CPT code forremoval of an insertable cardiac monitor. The timing (14 months after implantation) supports that this is not an immediate post-op revision but a standard removal after monitoring is complete or the device is no longer needed. The distractors represent other cardiac device services:33241is removal of an implantable defibrillator pulse generator (not a loop recorder), and33272/33273relate to other cardiac device procedures rather than removal of an insertable monitor. CPC strategy: identify the device category—loop recorder/insertable cardiac monitor—and match the service—removal—to the dedicated code. This avoids incorrectly reporting pacemaker/ICD codes, which are different devices with different procedural work and coding families.