How much does Medicare pay for CPT 01991?

Medicare allowed an average of $78.53 per service and paid $61.00 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $1271.04, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 01991?

Anesthesia for nerve block and injection. It was billed 5,529 times to 4,371 Medicare beneficiaries by 204 providers in 2024.

Does 01991 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $78.24 in an office setting and $78.67 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 01991 most?

Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA), with 3,611 services from 126 clinicians. Next are Anesthesiology, Interventional Pain Management, Pain Management.

CPT 01991

Anesthesia for nerve block and injection

$78.53Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 5,529 services

Providers submitted

$1271.04

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$78.53

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$61.00

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $1271.04 for this code and Medicare allowed $78.53 — 16.2× 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 $61.00 (78%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $78.24
Hospital / facility: $78.67

The facility rate is higher for this code, which is unusual and generally means the service depends on equipment or staffing a hospital carries. 1,749 services were billed in an office setting and 3,780 in a facility.

Services: 5,529
Beneficiaries: 4,371
Providers billing it: 204
Total allowed: $434,192

What Medicare pays for CPT 01991

Across 5,529 services billed by 204 providers to 4,371 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $78.53 per service. That is 1.3 services per beneficiary, so this is a code patients typically receive more than once. 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 01991

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA)	3,611	2,924	$81.70	126
Anesthesiology	1,840	1,385	$72.98	73
Interventional Pain Management	27	12	$77.25	1
Pain Management	24	23	$68.62	2
Emergency Medicine	16	16	$47.36	1
Anesthesiology Assistant	11	11	$35.13	1

01991 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
Texas	1,087	$86.18	$66.99	39
Arizona	905	$72.52	$57.55	20
New York	586	$75.98	$54.48	11
Florida	346	$79.15	$61.31	15
California	315	$88.72	$66.73	15
Ohio	182	$46.34	$35.25	9
Minnesota	152	$92.19	$79.93	8
Louisiana	150	$84.18	$68.80	4
Illinois	149	$84.87	$65.62	10
Tennessee	144	$92.11	$75.26	6
Maryland	132	$92.63	$64.25	5
Indiana	129	$52.81	$43.98	5
Arkansas	114	$82.54	$70.11	4
Mississippi	112	$77.17	$67.58	3
Georgia	97	$110.02	$86.44	6
Oklahoma	86	$81.50	$64.25	4
Pennsylvania	84	$59.32	$43.33	5
Kentucky	82	$71.87	$57.06	3
Missouri	79	$52.47	$42.04	4
New Jersey	68	$93.86	$71.92	4
Alabama	64	$64.88	$52.15	4
Nevada	60	$77.77	$65.31	3
Michigan	58	$63.47	$50.62	2
Hawaii	56	$82.13	$62.73	2
Colorado	51	$70.75	$57.05	2
Massachusetts	43	$68.18	$51.84	2
Nebraska	39	$76.83	$62.28	2
Washington	32	$108.71	$85.00	1
Rhode Island	28	$48.39	$37.94	1
Virginia	27	$81.25	$56.42	1
Connecticut	22	$59.81	$43.80	1
Utah	18	$39.12	$30.96	1
Wisconsin	16	$89.85	$68.25	1
North Carolina	16	$47.72	$37.19	1

Related codes

01922Anesthesia for x-ray or radiation therapy$135.98
01992Anesthesia for nerve block and injection procedure$117.33
01938Anesthesia for injection$85.34
01926Anesthesia for x-ray on artery of brain$227.98
01940Anesthesia for nerve destruction procedures on spine or spinal cord of$107.14
01996Daily hospital management of continuous spinal drug administration$62.53
01937Anesthesia for injection$89.46
01942Anesthesia for nerve modulation procedure spinal cord or repair of bon$152.21
01924Anesthesia for x-ray on arteries$214.93
01939Anesthesia for nerve destruction procedures on spine or spinal cord of$107.35
01916Anesthesia for x-ray exam of arteries and veins$162.11
01920Anesthesia for x-ray on heart vessels and chambers$181.92

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.