How much does Medicare pay for CPT 64479?

Medicare allowed an average of $275.58 per service and paid $214.26 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $1987.87, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 64479?

Injection of anesthetic and/or steroid drug into upper or middle spine nerve root using imaging guidance, single level. It was billed 29,922 times to 21,957 Medicare beneficiaries by 742 providers in 2024.

Does 64479 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $285.25 in an office setting and $271.33 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 64479 most?

Ambulatory Surgical Center, with 9,604 services from 191 clinicians. Next are Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Anesthesiology, Interventional Pain Management.

CPT 64479

Injection of anesthetic and/or steroid drug into upper or middle spine nerve root using imaging guidance, single level

$275.58Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 29,922 services

Providers submitted

$1987.87

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$275.58

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$214.26

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $1987.87 for this code and Medicare allowed $275.58 — 7.2× 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 $214.26 (78%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $285.25
Hospital / facility: $271.33

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. 9,126 services were billed in an office setting and 20,796 in a facility.

Services: 29,922
Beneficiaries: 21,957
Providers billing it: 742
Total allowed: $8,245,905

What Medicare pays for CPT 64479

Across 29,922 services billed by 742 providers to 21,957 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $275.58 per service. That is 1.4 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 64479

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Ambulatory Surgical Center	9,604	6,263	$423.13	191
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation	8,227	6,576	$199.63	224
Anesthesiology	3,587	2,677	$201.06	86
Interventional Pain Management	3,533	2,624	$227.28	86
Pain Management	3,265	2,464	$203.06	98
Diagnostic Radiology	603	555	$169.37	34
Orthopedic Surgery	430	276	$241.81	9
Neurology	294	211	$227.32	5
Family Practice	125	109	$234.37	3
Interventional Radiology	74	55	$262.59	1
Sports Medicine	68	61	$148.70	1
Cardiology	45	28	$132.27	1
Neurosurgery	28	23	$135.47	1
Internal Medicine	25	22	$296.07	1
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	14	13	$262.66	1

64479 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	4,096	$330.70	$226.80	90
Maryland	1,696	$290.05	$230.51	34
Texas	1,602	$213.04	$169.97	45
North Carolina	1,553	$257.94	$206.84	33
Nevada	1,511	$315.06	$242.12	32
Florida	1,509	$292.85	$232.27	36
Louisiana	1,493	$221.91	$190.48	29
Ohio	1,376	$246.05	$203.43	21
Pennsylvania	1,180	$279.43	$217.53	29
Colorado	1,068	$270.54	$212.47	34
New York	932	$289.71	$209.04	26
Washington	920	$280.60	$207.34	29
Indiana	876	$236.70	$192.80	29
Oregon	869	$312.23	$231.90	24
Alabama	752	$219.81	$194.44	20
Tennessee	734	$254.89	$219.36	16
Virginia	682	$297.39	$240.86	10
New Jersey	619	$315.50	$236.14	21
Delaware	602	$297.70	$228.68	10
Missouri	574	$235.43	$192.64	16
Mississippi	572	$254.31	$233.15	6
Massachusetts	567	$270.99	$189.85	8
Arizona	511	$273.29	$217.49	17
Minnesota	432	$305.38	$234.86	19
Georgia	408	$286.07	$228.19	14
Arkansas	393	$263.17	$223.09	8
Kansas	320	$215.37	$177.15	4
Wisconsin	302	$238.33	$190.10	12
South Carolina	244	$296.20	$245.34	7
Illinois	210	$261.42	$205.39	11
New Hampshire	200	$263.42	$219.06	5
Wyoming	186	$251.01	$200.05	8
Utah	169	$244.68	$191.67	7
Montana	166	$255.18	$212.24	5
Rhode Island	75	$278.26	$222.46	2
Michigan	73	$233.26	$193.56	4
Alaska	71	$330.88	$213.59	1
South Dakota	64	$159.36	$131.99	4
Nebraska	64	$119.93	$95.78	3
Connecticut	62	$307.56	$227.87	2
Kentucky	62	$225.03	$189.80	4
West Virginia	33	$138.49	$100.45	1
District of Columbia	19	$243.13	$215.53	1
Maine	17	$125.24	$101.23	1
New Mexico	16	$271.91	$243.20	1
Idaho	15	$131.34	$111.56	1
Oklahoma	15	$287.71	$217.13	1
North Dakota	12	$256.90	$170.51	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
64445Injection of anesthetic agent and/or steroid into lower back and leg n$173.06
64405Injection of anesthetic agent and/or steroid into upper neck and back$71.75
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.