How much does Medicare pay for CPT 63048?

Medicare allowed an average of $147.82 per service and paid $117.92 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $1464.39, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 63048?

Partial removal of spine bone with release of spinal cord and/or nerves, each additional segment. It was billed 102,362 times to 57,646 Medicare beneficiaries by 2,722 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 63048 most?

Orthopedic Surgery, with 36,630 services from 918 clinicians. Next are Neurosurgery, Physician Assistant, Nurse Practitioner.

CPT 63048

Partial removal of spine bone with release of spinal cord and/or nerves, each additional segment

$147.82Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 102,362 services

Providers submitted

$1464.39

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$147.82

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$117.92

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $1464.39 for this code and Medicare allowed $147.82 — 9.9× 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 $117.92 (80%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 102,362
Beneficiaries: 57,646
Providers billing it: 2,722
Total allowed: $15,131,151

What Medicare pays for CPT 63048

Across 102,362 services billed by 2,722 providers to 57,646 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $147.82 per service. That is 1.8 services per beneficiary, so this is a code patients typically receive more than once. 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 63048

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Orthopedic Surgery	36,630	20,790	$190.61	918
Neurosurgery	36,531	19,864	$198.59	969
Physician Assistant	23,486	13,718	$28.13	666
Nurse Practitioner	4,963	2,853	$27.06	147
Neurology	251	130	$198.73	8
Undefined Physician type	139	64	$195.95	3
General Surgery	121	81	$115.32	4
Colorectal Surgery (Proctology)	72	33	$33.62	1
Family Practice	60	34	$33.39	2
Certified Clinical Nurse Specialist	51	38	$27.43	2
Emergency Medicine	36	30	$35.07	1
Thoracic Surgery	22	11	$37.58	1

63048 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
Texas	9,580	$138.99	$112.79	238
California	8,895	$154.22	$121.21	243
Florida	8,793	$154.11	$112.37	205
Ohio	5,085	$148.70	$120.02	122
New York	4,752	$173.02	$119.88	129
Pennsylvania	4,648	$161.52	$126.95	102
Maryland	4,459	$172.37	$127.96	95
Virginia	3,656	$142.44	$115.30	82
Illinois	2,845	$165.70	$119.54	87
North Carolina	2,746	$151.12	$127.91	76
Massachusetts	2,595	$176.81	$135.74	75
Tennessee	2,503	$140.15	$128.66	55
New Jersey	2,498	$132.29	$99.35	78
Georgia	2,465	$156.15	$125.23	70
Indiana	2,465	$123.18	$111.23	69
South Carolina	2,395	$137.01	$115.30	65
Washington	2,389	$139.91	$113.26	72
Arizona	2,289	$145.65	$121.16	75
Kansas	2,283	$118.35	$105.42	45
Michigan	2,206	$156.55	$116.65	64
Nevada	1,791	$125.76	$103.30	44
Colorado	1,728	$147.28	$118.93	57
Missouri	1,597	$156.61	$126.95	53
Iowa	1,454	$116.80	$105.62	35
Alabama	1,341	$106.76	$97.69	35
Delaware	1,230	$127.46	$104.01	22
Oklahoma	1,218	$133.80	$113.73	41
Oregon	1,129	$118.77	$102.19	39
Louisiana	1,104	$121.72	$102.36	29
Minnesota	1,023	$148.08	$132.16	32
Nebraska	899	$124.37	$116.55	29
Utah	884	$139.91	$115.82	22
Kentucky	830	$149.81	$124.93	27
Idaho	815	$117.08	$106.39	27
Wisconsin	778	$151.49	$137.87	29
Connecticut	643	$161.18	$117.15	21
Arkansas	521	$147.52	$134.33	23
North Dakota	502	$111.81	$97.22	4
District of Columbia	487	$217.56	$156.58	11
Mississippi	478	$129.61	$113.32	14
Montana	395	$175.87	$141.62	14
South Dakota	383	$115.13	$103.05	17
Alaska	340	$164.28	$107.35	9
New Hampshire	313	$173.63	$139.87	10
Hawaii	230	$133.20	$114.03	7
Wyoming	228	$143.26	$121.65	7
Rhode Island	190	$156.35	$120.00	7
West Virginia	132	$215.03	$164.08	4
Vermont	68	$169.81	$154.11	2
Maine	50	$76.67	$64.84	3
New Mexico	34	$207.03	$164.10	1

Related codes

63047Partial removal of spine bone$700.79
63052Partial removal of bone of single segment of spine in lower back$172.81
63053Partial removal of bone of additional segment of spine in lower back$156.39
63030Partial removal of spine bone$1056.97
63045Partial removal of spine bone$692.40
63056Release of lower spinal cord and/or nerves$948.73
63042Partial removal of spine bone$1003.68
63057Release of middle or lower spinal cord and/or nerves$201.97

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.