How much does Medicare pay for CPT 22846?

Medicare allowed an average of $530.39 per service and paid $423.32 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $3284.29, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 22846?

Placement of stabilizing device to front, 4-7 spine bone segments. It was billed 2,203 times to 2,194 Medicare beneficiaries by 134 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 22846 most?

Neurosurgery, with 819 services from 47 clinicians. Next are Orthopedic Surgery, Physician Assistant, Nurse Practitioner.

CPT 22846

Placement of stabilizing device to front, 4-7 spine bone segments

$530.39Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 2,203 services

Providers submitted

$3284.29

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$530.39

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$423.32

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $3284.29 for this code and Medicare allowed $530.39 — 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 $423.32 (80%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 2,203
Beneficiaries: 2,194
Providers billing it: 134
Total allowed: $1,168,449

What Medicare pays for CPT 22846

Across 2,203 services billed by 134 providers to 2,194 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $530.39 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 22846

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Neurosurgery	819	816	$720.31	47
Orthopedic Surgery	694	689	$726.17	45
Physician Assistant	549	548	$100.33	33
Nurse Practitioner	130	130	$95.56	8
Neurology	11	11	$641.81	1

22846 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	430	$523.40	$381.31	24
Texas	348	$619.64	$499.47	24
Louisiana	243	$457.45	$387.82	13
California	215	$506.96	$408.26	12
North Carolina	184	$453.69	$395.55	8
Kansas	96	$449.25	$404.94	8
Maryland	95	$558.19	$428.80	6
Illinois	73	$538.72	$402.25	3
Colorado	57	$596.57	$480.78	4
Virginia	51	$451.77	$408.21	3
Tennessee	48	$717.45	$590.73	2
Arkansas	40	$493.34	$449.11	2
Arizona	39	$539.61	$445.49	3
Georgia	38	$518.89	$406.07	3
South Carolina	34	$680.38	$572.33	3
Ohio	27	$396.19	$348.85	2
Nevada	27	$390.03	$349.58	2
Michigan	25	$465.75	$350.74	2
Alabama	22	$95.48	$79.71	1
Alaska	22	$895.25	$588.31	1
Idaho	12	$690.19	$587.65	1
Utah	11	$716.72	$589.18	1
Nebraska	11	$572.80	$601.51	1
Washington	11	$593.36	$615.80	1
Oklahoma	11	$642.55	$602.60	1
Minnesota	11	$648.21	$587.43	1
Wisconsin	11	$641.81	$589.19	1
Massachusetts	11	$781.98	$589.19	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
22843Placement of stabilizing device to back$660.26
22848Insertion of instrumentation to pelvic bones$275.32
22830Exploration of spine fusion$310.27
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.