How much does Medicare pay for CPT 22840?

Medicare allowed an average of $513.09 per service and paid $409.57 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $3172.07, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 22840?

Placement of stabilizing device to back of 1 spine bone in neck. It was billed 31,665 times to 31,438 Medicare beneficiaries by 1,695 providers in 2024.

Does 22840 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $545.78 in an office setting and $513.01 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 22840 most?

Orthopedic Surgery, with 12,177 services from 628 clinicians. Next are Neurosurgery, Physician Assistant, Nurse Practitioner.

CPT 22840

Placement of stabilizing device to back of 1 spine bone in neck

$513.09Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 31,665 services

Providers submitted

$3172.07

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$513.09

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$409.57

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $3172.07 for this code and Medicare allowed $513.09 — 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 $409.57 (80%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $545.78
Hospital / facility: $513.01

The office rate is higher because the practice supplies the room, staff and equipment out of that payment. In a hospital the facility bills those separately, so the clinician's share is smaller — the total cost to Medicare is usually higher, not lower. 79 services were billed in an office setting and 31,586 in a facility.

Services: 31,665
Beneficiaries: 31,438
Providers billing it: 1,695
Total allowed: $16,246,995

What Medicare pays for CPT 22840

Across 31,665 services billed by 1,695 providers to 31,438 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $513.09 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 22840

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Orthopedic Surgery	12,177	12,101	$696.80	628
Neurosurgery	8,884	8,825	$702.67	493
Physician Assistant	8,236	8,191	$98.68	443
Nurse Practitioner	1,582	1,573	$96.03	94
Interventional Pain Management	249	228	$771.74	8
Pain Management	181	175	$707.80	9
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation	124	117	$682.21	5
Anesthesiology	89	87	$775.45	5
Neurology	42	42	$733.07	3
Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine	36	36	$689.21	2
Diagnostic Radiology	19	17	$710.84	1
Colorectal Surgery (Proctology)	13	13	$121.13	1
Certified Clinical Nurse Specialist	11	11	$102.73	1
Undefined Physician type	11	11	$732.45	1
Vascular Surgery	11	11	$117.70	1

22840 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	2,765	$528.03	$415.71	139
Florida	2,759	$533.45	$389.73	133
Texas	2,519	$524.62	$423.18	135
Pennsylvania	1,423	$603.83	$473.90	70
Arizona	1,253	$487.17	$406.99	61
South Carolina	1,059	$458.97	$391.15	53
Indiana	1,040	$412.42	$374.56	57
Illinois	980	$569.04	$407.66	54
Massachusetts	945	$652.60	$510.32	45
Georgia	932	$526.82	$432.13	47
Ohio	903	$542.32	$438.54	53
Virginia	880	$488.25	$402.41	47
Tennessee	806	$522.00	$474.91	48
Oklahoma	783	$445.73	$382.28	37
Alabama	770	$369.96	$341.12	39
Missouri	766	$489.93	$400.68	46
Maryland	756	$579.17	$437.78	40
North Carolina	747	$511.48	$437.43	48
New York	668	$618.24	$444.30	42
Colorado	655	$508.30	$412.79	40
Kansas	620	$468.71	$420.54	36
Washington	540	$534.20	$433.71	31
Nebraska	537	$407.24	$380.60	32
Iowa	532	$446.05	$399.25	28
Utah	523	$494.43	$411.62	27
Louisiana	511	$417.47	$347.71	30
Nevada	481	$435.97	$354.88	22
Minnesota	443	$451.85	$406.29	31
Michigan	440	$631.41	$478.78	26
New Jersey	424	$627.72	$466.34	22
Arkansas	387	$484.69	$443.57	21
Mississippi	384	$410.46	$361.10	14
South Dakota	362	$391.73	$348.56	20
Oregon	321	$514.15	$451.38	16
Idaho	259	$458.12	$416.05	15
Kentucky	236	$518.16	$443.36	15
Delaware	207	$483.91	$394.95	10
Montana	182	$545.66	$444.68	9
Wisconsin	118	$529.40	$481.65	8
West Virginia	115	$610.42	$471.94	7
Connecticut	111	$550.04	$404.30	8
New Hampshire	104	$441.14	$353.66	8
North Dakota	101	$461.10	$398.22	6
Wyoming	88	$545.74	$454.81	4
New Mexico	80	$482.57	$378.47	5
Alaska	46	$643.69	$420.57	3
District of Columbia	31	$860.94	$592.69	2
Hawaii	31	$616.54	$524.63	2
Maine	29	$677.10	$571.06	2
Vermont	13	$581.22	$561.37	1

Related codes

22853Insertion of cage or mesh device to spine bone and disc space during s$172.21
22842Placement of stabilizing device to back$533.80
22845Placement of stabilizing device to front$497.22
22843Placement of stabilizing device to back$660.26
22848Insertion of instrumentation to pelvic bones$275.32
22830Exploration of spine fusion$310.27
22846Placement of stabilizing device to front$530.39
22854Insertion of cage or mesh device in disc space during spine fusion$220.52

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.