How much does Medicare pay for CPT 22600?

Medicare allowed an average of $850.43 per service and paid $678.30 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $5252.45, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 22600?

Fusion of spine in neck by posterior approach. It was billed 3,840 times to 3,774 Medicare beneficiaries by 261 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 22600 most?

Neurosurgery, with 2,505 services from 175 clinicians. Next are Orthopedic Surgery, Physician Assistant, Nurse Practitioner.

CPT 22600

Fusion of spine in neck by posterior approach

$850.43Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 3,840 services

Providers submitted

$5252.45

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$850.43

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$678.30

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $5252.45 for this code and Medicare allowed $850.43 — 6.2× 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 $678.30 (80%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 3,840
Beneficiaries: 3,774
Providers billing it: 261
Total allowed: $3,265,651

What Medicare pays for CPT 22600

Across 3,840 services billed by 261 providers to 3,774 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $850.43 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 22600

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Neurosurgery	2,505	2,458	$965.51	175
Orthopedic Surgery	791	782	$924.16	49
Physician Assistant	320	314	$144.90	22
Nurse Practitioner	174	170	$143.89	11
Neurology	38	38	$911.60	3
Undefined Physician type	12	12	$832.99	1

22600 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
California	412	$898.23	$665.59	31
Florida	347	$771.05	$551.74	24
Maryland	263	$1076.51	$772.26	16
Texas	217	$830.80	$647.14	14
North Carolina	216	$759.09	$607.51	13
Pennsylvania	182	$965.56	$749.64	10
Massachusetts	178	$1028.25	$769.17	12
Colorado	178	$700.75	$549.28	11
South Carolina	173	$742.52	$595.30	9
New York	140	$1013.47	$640.48	9
Tennessee	129	$938.78	$804.10	8
Kansas	126	$585.49	$484.34	8
Alabama	119	$663.80	$585.44	9
Virginia	111	$884.59	$721.07	9
Missouri	106	$936.62	$740.22	7
Ohio	97	$738.39	$589.41	7
Oklahoma	69	$862.50	$746.25	5
New Jersey	66	$735.65	$507.84	5
Arizona	60	$1018.76	$836.36	5
Delaware	52	$797.51	$618.55	3
Illinois	49	$1016.17	$683.72	4
Minnesota	43	$699.66	$591.03	3
Iowa	42	$836.95	$761.53	3
Arkansas	41	$772.61	$695.19	3
Indiana	38	$762.88	$659.95	3
Oregon	38	$745.16	$625.19	3
Michigan	37	$935.74	$685.52	3
Connecticut	37	$862.47	$621.23	3
Wisconsin	34	$765.91	$653.66	2
Kentucky	34	$849.87	$691.53	3
Georgia	28	$600.29	$513.10	2
Hawaii	27	$464.93	$366.95	2
West Virginia	25	$1065.64	$799.34	2
Alaska	24	$730.42	$465.87	2
Washington	23	$937.36	$751.33	2
Montana	23	$846.70	$673.49	2
District of Columbia	18	$1257.51	$941.34	1
Vermont	14	$855.07	$701.83	1
Idaho	12	$713.95	$646.83	1
Louisiana	12	$831.67	$689.30	1

Related codes

22614Fusion of additional segment of spine$284.08
22612Fusion of spine in lower back$1477.10
22633Fusion of spine in lower back$1195.61
22634Fusion of additional segment of spine$335.52
22630Fusion of lower spine bone and partial removal of spine bone or disc t$1109.53
22610Fusion of spine in upper back$673.40

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.