How much does Medicare pay for CPT 22843?

Medicare allowed an average of $660.26 per service and paid $527.33 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $3877.77, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 22843?

Placement of stabilizing device to back, 7-12 spine bone segments. It was billed 3,516 times to 3,423 Medicare beneficiaries by 209 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 22843 most?

Neurosurgery, with 1,634 services from 91 clinicians. Next are Orthopedic Surgery, Physician Assistant, Nurse Practitioner.

CPT 22843

Placement of stabilizing device to back, 7-12 spine bone segments

$660.26Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 3,516 services

Providers submitted

$3877.77

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$660.26

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$527.33

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $3877.77 for this code and Medicare allowed $660.26 — 5.9× 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 $527.33 (80%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 3,516
Beneficiaries: 3,423
Providers billing it: 209
Total allowed: $2,321,474

What Medicare pays for CPT 22843

Across 3,516 services billed by 209 providers to 3,423 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $660.26 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 22843

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Neurosurgery	1,634	1,595	$732.23	91
Orthopedic Surgery	1,431	1,384	$747.10	88
Physician Assistant	387	380	$105.67	25
Nurse Practitioner	37	37	$98.68	3
Neurology	14	14	$694.73	1
General Surgery	13	13	$125.75	1

22843 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	674	$672.05	$521.29	34
Tennessee	248	$512.57	$474.06	13
North Carolina	228	$637.89	$529.78	11
Texas	201	$653.15	$518.38	15
Colorado	201	$595.40	$475.33	13
Ohio	186	$546.05	$432.91	9
Florida	178	$695.74	$508.39	12
Oklahoma	138	$495.99	$426.74	7
Maryland	137	$773.15	$574.50	9
Illinois	122	$735.66	$514.73	8
Virginia	121	$605.17	$503.37	7
New York	117	$767.29	$505.60	8
Pennsylvania	109	$819.15	$636.53	7
Massachusetts	90	$780.83	$594.02	6
Arizona	78	$750.97	$639.65	4
Michigan	65	$713.85	$536.37	5
Washington	59	$833.63	$638.45	4
Wisconsin	58	$571.51	$522.31	4
Missouri	54	$771.30	$628.23	4
South Carolina	52	$629.22	$508.84	3
District of Columbia	46	$890.73	$634.19	2
Connecticut	46	$642.13	$475.63	3
Alaska	41	$586.46	$460.88	3
Minnesota	40	$726.84	$635.48	3
Iowa	35	$702.53	$635.78	2
Arkansas	34	$399.44	$360.39	2
Georgia	33	$526.66	$403.19	2
Kentucky	26	$779.44	$642.48	2
Idaho	26	$678.58	$614.55	2
Louisiana	16	$769.26	$635.61	1
Oregon	16	$744.46	$635.60	1
Utah	16	$731.47	$591.43	1
Kansas	14	$739.22	$636.07	1
Indiana	11	$716.08	$583.31	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
22840Placement of stabilizing device to back of 1 spine bone in neck$513.09
22845Placement of stabilizing device to front$497.22
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.