How much does Medicare pay for CPT 22848?

Medicare allowed an average of $275.32 per service and paid $219.71 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $1650.15, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 22848?

Insertion of instrumentation to pelvic bones. It was billed 3,277 times to 3,239 Medicare beneficiaries by 186 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 22848 most?

Orthopedic Surgery, with 1,624 services from 94 clinicians. Next are Neurosurgery, Physician Assistant, Nurse Practitioner.

CPT 22848

Insertion of instrumentation to pelvic bones

$275.32Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 3,277 services

Providers submitted

$1650.15

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$275.32

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$219.71

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $1650.15 for this code and Medicare allowed $275.32 — 6.0× 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 $219.71 (80%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 3,277
Beneficiaries: 3,239
Providers billing it: 186
Total allowed: $902,224

What Medicare pays for CPT 22848

Across 3,277 services billed by 186 providers to 3,239 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $275.32 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 22848

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Orthopedic Surgery	1,624	1,602	$330.67	94
Neurosurgery	1,109	1,098	$299.61	56
Physician Assistant	425	420	$46.32	27
Nurse Practitioner	62	62	$43.35	5
General Surgery	44	44	$158.42	3
Neurology	13	13	$276.91	1

22848 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	612	$298.79	$229.47	26
Texas	264	$275.81	$219.25	17
Florida	246	$281.81	$211.18	14
Tennessee	218	$201.68	$185.95	10
North Carolina	216	$281.13	$235.71	10
Ohio	210	$249.91	$201.00	10
Colorado	170	$265.52	$213.48	11
Massachusetts	148	$305.19	$231.86	7
Illinois	108	$315.49	$214.91	7
Oklahoma	90	$225.72	$202.82	5
Minnesota	88	$270.08	$235.45	6
New York	87	$397.03	$269.80	6
Maryland	79	$370.86	$274.00	5
Pennsylvania	74	$295.53	$227.06	5
Missouri	62	$263.73	$219.98	5
Nevada	50	$149.94	$122.19	3
Arizona	49	$339.33	$279.36	3
Alaska	45	$331.52	$215.54	4
Utah	44	$252.40	$205.91	3
Virginia	42	$261.62	$217.67	3
Idaho	41	$232.59	$202.81	3
Nebraska	34	$133.34	$122.96	3
Kansas	33	$186.41	$171.71	2
Delaware	32	$236.13	$189.17	2
Arkansas	32	$176.75	$158.39	2
Montana	30	$240.22	$190.38	2
Iowa	30	$311.24	$279.38	1
Kentucky	27	$284.85	$247.66	2
Wisconsin	25	$162.48	$169.83	2
Washington	22	$381.32	$279.25	2
Indiana	21	$287.77	$282.10	1
New Jersey	13	$293.56	$222.55	1
Connecticut	13	$328.94	$243.37	1
Oregon	11	$60.59	$44.85	1
Georgia	11	$316.50	$286.66	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
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.