How much does Medicare pay for CPT 64488?

Medicare allowed an average of $64.89 per service and paid $51.40 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $1054.16, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 64488?

Injection of local anesthetic for abdominal wall pain control on both sides using imaging guidance. It was billed 23,858 times to 23,562 Medicare beneficiaries by 1,263 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 64488 most?

Anesthesiology, with 21,764 services from 1,147 clinicians. Next are Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA), Pain Management, General Surgery.

CPT 64488

Injection of local anesthetic for abdominal wall pain control on both sides using imaging guidance

$64.89Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 23,858 services

Providers submitted

$1054.16

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$64.89

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$51.40

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $1054.16 for this code and Medicare allowed $64.89 — 16.2× 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 $51.40 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 23,858
Beneficiaries: 23,562
Providers billing it: 1,263
Total allowed: $1,548,146

What Medicare pays for CPT 64488

Across 23,858 services billed by 1,263 providers to 23,562 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $64.89 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 64488

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Anesthesiology	21,764	21,549	$64.85	1,147
Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA)	1,395	1,319	$64.09	85
Pain Management	415	413	$67.62	16
General Surgery	195	192	$69.33	9
Interventional Pain Management	30	30	$66.27	2
Critical Care (Intensivists)	19	19	$50.58	1
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation	15	15	$67.46	1
Emergency Medicine	14	14	$65.82	1
Internal Medicine	11	11	$69.68	1

64488 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	2,271	$67.43	$37.95	127
Texas	1,920	$64.59	$36.94	108
Indiana	1,725	$62.47	$35.23	91
Georgia	1,130	$63.57	$34.24	53
Ohio	1,114	$63.02	$34.39	58
Tennessee	1,031	$63.27	$37.80	49
Florida	989	$64.91	$34.41	50
Missouri	838	$65.33	$35.96	38
Nebraska	783	$57.35	$35.05	33
Nevada	755	$65.34	$43.40	35
Mississippi	736	$63.69	$38.56	36
New York	709	$71.79	$35.15	46
Arizona	707	$67.23	$34.31	43
Michigan	678	$66.24	$34.22	43
Alabama	628	$61.84	$38.37	34
Utah	613	$65.12	$33.70	30
Wisconsin	562	$62.49	$33.68	23
Louisiana	538	$63.38	$39.16	25
South Carolina	530	$61.02	$32.90	28
Maryland	458	$68.71	$40.85	22
Kentucky	443	$65.51	$38.13	27
Kansas	419	$63.68	$41.46	23
North Carolina	392	$63.79	$36.84	23
Massachusetts	373	$67.30	$33.68	24
Oklahoma	369	$63.32	$32.44	14
Pennsylvania	367	$63.23	$38.34	22
New Jersey	365	$70.66	$36.23	16
Virginia	314	$69.72	$34.46	18
Connecticut	310	$65.57	$39.94	15
Colorado	304	$62.68	$41.77	18
Illinois	273	$66.25	$35.90	17
Oregon	193	$63.74	$35.13	13
Alaska	173	$91.01	$46.10	9
Minnesota	107	$59.93	$32.81	7
New Mexico	107	$66.60	$28.89	6
Washington	106	$67.11	$34.81	7
Iowa	67	$62.66	$45.64	3
Arkansas	65	$61.60	$43.03	5
West Virginia	64	$66.92	$40.57	5
District of Columbia	63	$66.36	$39.38	4
New Hampshire	54	$64.94	$42.72	4
Montana	36	$65.30	$38.84	2
Idaho	35	$67.80	$28.64	1
Maine	34	$69.16	$30.32	1
Wyoming	32	$64.78	$34.04	2
Hawaii	24	$66.62	$36.37	2
Rhode Island	22	$67.52	$36.54	1
Delaware	17	$64.96	$43.35	1
North Dakota	15	$69.04	$36.85	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
64479Injection of anesthetic and/or steroid drug into upper or middle spine$275.58

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.