How much does Medicare pay for CPT 61886?

Medicare allowed an average of $1268.93 per service and paid $1008.59 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $4794.66, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 61886?

Insertion of brain neurostimulator pulse device with connection to 2 or more electrode arrays. It was billed 3,198 times to 3,145 Medicare beneficiaries by 139 providers in 2024.

Does 61886 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $910.71 in an office setting and $1274.62 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 61886 most?

Neurosurgery, with 3,010 services from 129 clinicians. Next are Physician Assistant, Ambulatory Surgical Center, Neurology.

CPT 61886

Insertion of brain neurostimulator pulse device with connection to 2 or more electrode arrays

$1268.93Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 3,198 services

Providers submitted

$4794.66

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$1268.93

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$1008.59

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $4794.66 for this code and Medicare allowed $1268.93 — 3.8× 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 $1008.59 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $910.71
Hospital / facility: $1274.62

The facility rate is higher for this code, which is unusual and generally means the service depends on equipment or staffing a hospital carries. 50 services were billed in an office setting and 3,148 in a facility.

Services: 3,198
Beneficiaries: 3,145
Providers billing it: 139
Total allowed: $4,058,038

What Medicare pays for CPT 61886

Across 3,198 services billed by 139 providers to 3,145 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $1268.93 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 61886

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Neurosurgery	3,010	2,959	$842.83	129
Physician Assistant	114	113	$121.02	6
Ambulatory Surgical Center	59	58	$25,366	3
Neurology	15	15	$714.91	1

61886 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	431	$1562.39	$1128.62	20
Texas	413	$860.13	$660.38	16
Florida	216	$888.07	$668.49	8
Arizona	163	$5366.75	$4322.09	5
Washington	140	$847.41	$615.73	7
Pennsylvania	132	$847.27	$670.44	4
Minnesota	121	$796.69	$668.96	3
Tennessee	111	$784.57	$706.00	4
Ohio	107	$780.67	$644.91	6
New York	106	$992.62	$681.30	5
Kentucky	86	$846.50	$678.05	4
North Carolina	86	$792.00	$671.35	5
Illinois	78	$818.05	$586.14	3
Montana	77	$529.80	$397.39	2
New Jersey	77	$965.89	$694.88	4
Virginia	76	$819.53	$653.02	4
Massachusetts	72	$848.16	$618.06	5
Iowa	62	$760.14	$697.07	1
Missouri	57	$668.63	$546.61	3
Georgia	54	$725.53	$568.64	3
Nevada	54	$7766.91	$6285.59	3
Kansas	52	$460.34	$399.74	2
Oregon	44	$842.52	$644.62	2
Louisiana	42	$816.40	$702.39	2
Colorado	41	$865.40	$681.65	3
Oklahoma	41	$710.26	$647.43	1
District of Columbia	34	$1069.04	$680.04	1
Michigan	32	$523.03	$422.07	2
Connecticut	31	$907.97	$658.79	2
Wisconsin	28	$705.37	$626.52	1
Maryland	27	$964.24	$703.70	1
Indiana	24	$764.01	$688.31	1
Arkansas	20	$757.30	$701.93	1
Maine	15	$840.63	$700.97	1
Utah	13	$782.30	$702.73	1
New Hampshire	13	$849.31	$648.84	1
West Virginia	11	$909.74	$702.27	1
South Dakota	11	$800.42	$704.36	1

Related codes

61800Computer-assisted radiosurgery application of headframe$151.51
61885Insertion of brain neurostimulator pulse device$1053.49
61867Removal of skull bone$2149.59

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.