How much does Medicare pay for CPT 64445?

Medicare allowed an average of $173.06 per service and paid $136.06 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $462.40, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 64445?

Injection of anesthetic agent and/or steroid into lower back and leg nerve (sciatic nerve). It was billed 61,032 times to 23,134 Medicare beneficiaries by 872 providers in 2024.

Does 64445 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $199.31 in an office setting and $68.24 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 64445 most?

Nurse Practitioner, with 17,412 services from 15 clinicians. Next are Anesthesiology, Family Practice, Neurology.

CPT 64445

Injection of anesthetic agent and/or steroid into lower back and leg nerve (sciatic nerve)

$173.06Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 61,032 services

Providers submitted

$462.40

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$173.06

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$136.06

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $462.40 for this code and Medicare allowed $173.06 — 2.7× 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 $136.06 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $199.31
Hospital / facility: $68.24

The office rate is higher because the practice supplies the room, staff and equipment out of that payment. In a hospital the facility bills those separately, so the clinician's share is smaller — the total cost to Medicare is usually higher, not lower. 48,809 services were billed in an office setting and 12,223 in a facility.

Services: 61,032
Beneficiaries: 23,134
Providers billing it: 872
Total allowed: $10,562,198

What Medicare pays for CPT 64445

Across 61,032 services billed by 872 providers to 23,134 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $173.06 per service. That is 2.6 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 64445

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Nurse Practitioner	17,412	810	$193.02	15
Anesthesiology	11,446	10,508	$81.26	560
Family Practice	10,218	1,315	$219.95	15
Neurology	4,248	728	$226.17	20
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation	4,173	2,036	$196.24	55
General Practice	2,845	508	$195.68	8
Rheumatology	2,124	1,410	$188.62	19
Interventional Pain Management	1,729	1,235	$176.07	24
Pain Management	1,706	923	$153.19	25
Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA)	1,648	1,582	$70.97	78
Internal Medicine	1,197	657	$194.30	11
Orthopedic Surgery	1,072	707	$185.02	13
Physician Assistant	682	373	$132.52	13
Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine	244	150	$166.99	4
Ambulatory Surgical Center	95	71	$87.93	5

64445 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	32,136	$203.57	$165.22	66
Florida	6,070	$173.54	$128.89	90
California	4,833	$155.77	$108.65	103
New York	3,152	$178.79	$121.51	47
Michigan	1,153	$131.48	$94.19	29
Pennsylvania	973	$146.10	$107.04	31
Ohio	951	$97.01	$70.32	27
New Jersey	924	$185.78	$132.53	20
Louisiana	812	$160.19	$122.91	21
Virginia	693	$118.77	$83.19	26
Alabama	687	$111.77	$81.44	19
Oklahoma	665	$84.31	$49.25	29
Maryland	651	$110.81	$69.32	21
Kentucky	622	$112.88	$93.40	20
Indiana	605	$89.55	$67.20	24
North Carolina	601	$89.36	$57.90	34
Kansas	536	$83.50	$55.60	23
Tennessee	528	$66.06	$40.23	27
South Carolina	512	$82.69	$51.44	24
Arkansas	465	$133.89	$93.66	13
Arizona	391	$92.21	$59.46	18
Missouri	385	$65.05	$41.59	16
Georgia	287	$85.34	$52.05	15
Illinois	258	$92.21	$58.94	16
New Hampshire	178	$98.57	$74.15	9
Wisconsin	175	$92.19	$61.06	8
Minnesota	169	$108.18	$88.06	10
Colorado	156	$76.95	$45.75	12
Nevada	135	$73.98	$44.69	8
Nebraska	127	$119.77	$96.84	5
West Virginia	122	$92.61	$63.64	4
Connecticut	114	$108.23	$74.52	7
Massachusetts	113	$74.12	$40.90	8
Rhode Island	113	$170.41	$136.18	2
Utah	100	$67.95	$40.91	5
South Dakota	81	$66.74	$40.59	6
Washington	74	$135.65	$90.50	2
Wyoming	74	$68.67	$35.74	3
Mississippi	72	$65.91	$38.05	4
Montana	56	$69.86	$32.14	4
Idaho	54	$65.51	$42.87	4
Alaska	50	$92.33	$41.20	3
Delaware	46	$132.55	$100.98	1
Hawaii	44	$131.08	$91.99	2
Maine	37	$98.50	$63.03	2
Iowa	25	$66.51	$45.64	2
Oregon	16	$67.04	$33.48	1
District of Columbia	11	$77.38	$40.50	1

Related codes

64483Injection of anesthetic and/or steroid drug into sacral spine nerve ro$263.09
64493Injection of lower or sacral spine facet joint$243.14
64494Injection of lower or sacral spine facet joint$96.60
64450Injection of anesthetic agent and/or steroid into other nerve or branc$44.99
64447Injection of anesthetic agent and/or steroid into thigh nerve (femoral$58.78
64484Injection of anesthetic and/or steroid drug into sacral spine nerve ro$84.15
64490Injection of upper or middle spine facet joint$259.70
64415Injection of anesthetic agent and/or steroid into arm nerve bundle (br$67.89
64491Injection of upper or middle spine facet joint$100.48
64405Injection of anesthetic agent and/or steroid into upper neck and back$71.75
64479Injection of anesthetic and/or steroid drug into upper or middle spine$275.58
64455Injection of anesthetic and/or steroid drug into foot nerve$48.08

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.