How much does Medicare pay for CPT 00144?

Medicare allowed an average of $143.81 per service and paid $111.49 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $1372.10, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 00144?

Anesthesia for procedure on eye for corneal transplant. It was billed 5,905 times to 5,614 Medicare beneficiaries by 301 providers in 2024.

Does 00144 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $121.17 in an office setting and $145.30 in a facility. The office rate is generally higher because the practice supplies the room, staff and equipment out of that single payment; in a hospital those are billed separately by the facility.

Which specialty bills 00144 most?

Anesthesiology, with 2,956 services from 137 clinicians. Next are Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA), Anesthesiology Assistant, Interventional Pain Management.

CPT 00144

Anesthesia for procedure on eye for corneal transplant

$143.81Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 5,905 services

Providers submitted

$1372.10

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$143.81

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$111.49

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $1372.10 for this code and Medicare allowed $143.81 — 9.5× less. That gap is normal and means nothing on its own: Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of what is billed, so the submitted figure describes a hospital chargemaster, not a price anyone paid. Of the allowed amount Medicare paid $111.49 (78%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $121.17
Hospital / facility: $145.30

The facility rate is higher for this code, which is unusual and generally means the service depends on equipment or staffing a hospital carries. 365 services were billed in an office setting and 5,540 in a facility.

Services: 5,905
Beneficiaries: 5,614
Providers billing it: 301
Total allowed: $849,198

What Medicare pays for CPT 00144

Across 5,905 services billed by 301 providers to 5,614 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $143.81 per service. The allowed amount is the figure that matters: it is what Medicare and the patient together owe, set by the fee schedule and adjusted for local practice costs. What a provider chose to submit has no bearing on it.

Who bills 00144

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Anesthesiology	2,956	2,845	$139.24	137
Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA)	2,778	2,602	$150.74	155
Anesthesiology Assistant	141	137	$101.14	7
Interventional Pain Management	16	16	$164.46	1
Family Practice	14	14	$138.97	1

00144 reimbursement by state

Two different numbers. Allowed is what Medicare actually allowed in that state, which includes the local practice-cost adjustment. Standardized strips that geographic adjustment out of the payment, so it is the column to use when comparing states — a difference there reflects how the code was billed, not what it costs to run a practice locally.

State	Services	Allowed	Standardized pmt	Providers
Florida	710	$143.19	$105.06	37
Texas	566	$111.67	$87.23	24
Pennsylvania	344	$116.33	$90.51	17
New York	338	$162.76	$119.90	19
California	303	$191.00	$136.81	15
Georgia	273	$111.75	$88.66	10
Maryland	268	$163.09	$120.51	16
South Carolina	235	$171.48	$129.06	13
Arizona	213	$173.14	$138.38	11
New Jersey	210	$157.36	$117.77	10
Michigan	192	$128.94	$97.40	9
Virginia	171	$108.04	$83.67	9
Indiana	154	$166.73	$137.54	3
North Carolina	143	$110.15	$85.57	10
South Dakota	143	$139.95	$114.47	3
Alabama	142	$103.08	$83.72	7
Massachusetts	135	$107.56	$80.97	9
Nebraska	127	$155.04	$127.56	6
Louisiana	127	$164.89	$127.63	7
Oklahoma	123	$159.09	$126.57	7
Ohio	111	$124.09	$95.11	7
Missouri	95	$162.67	$133.47	6
Kansas	87	$169.73	$135.87	5
Illinois	77	$162.43	$128.34	4
Tennessee	75	$132.15	$106.17	5
New Hampshire	67	$134.45	$105.80	2
West Virginia	54	$100.59	$76.95	2
Nevada	53	$188.71	$151.09	3
Minnesota	53	$171.02	$130.21	4
Washington	47	$199.87	$154.95	3
Oregon	46	$174.43	$127.93	3
Iowa	42	$174.83	$137.27	3
Colorado	31	$109.85	$86.61	2
Mississippi	30	$150.70	$117.86	2
Utah	29	$147.87	$120.17	2
Kentucky	27	$166.95	$142.04	2
Delaware	21	$168.81	$144.57	1
Arkansas	18	$182.42	$140.21	1
Connecticut	14	$193.25	$152.45	1
North Dakota	11	$181.61	$149.33	1

Related codes

00142Anesthesia for lens surgery$94.99
00140Anesthesia for other procedure on eye$123.68
00145Anesthesia for retinal surgery$148.90
00104Anesthesia for electroshock therapy$80.75
00103Anesthesia for procedure on eyelid$139.67
00160Anesthesia for other procedure on nose and sinuses$150.31
00170Anesthesia for other procedure on mouth$148.06
00120Anesthesia for other procedure on external middle and inner ear$184.90

Billing this code is not the same as earning it

An allowed amount is revenue to a practice, not income to a clinician. It funds staff, premises, equipment and supplies before anyone is paid. What clinicians actually earn is published separately by the Department of Labor, and what industry pays them is published separately again by CMS — this site carries both.

What doctors are paid →·Look up a clinician →·All procedure codes →

Where this comes from. CMS Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners, by Provider and Service, 2024. It covers fee-for-service Original Medicare Part B only — not Medicare Advantage, not Medicaid, and not commercial insurance, which typically pays more for the same code.

How it is averaged. CMS publishes one average per provider per code. Every figure here is re-weighted by the number of services, so a clinician who billed the code 4,000 times counts 4,000 times more than one who billed it twice. CMS also suppresses any provider-code pair with fewer than 11 beneficiaries, so low-volume practice is missing from these totals by design.