How much does Medicare pay for CPT 64721?

Medicare allowed an average of $553.77 per service and paid $435.48 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $3392.83, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 64721?

Release and/or relocation of hand nerve. It was billed 121,795 times to 107,611 Medicare beneficiaries by 3,217 providers in 2024.

Does 64721 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $410.52 in an office setting and $562.03 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 64721 most?

Ambulatory Surgical Center, with 46,063 services from 916 clinicians. Next are Orthopedic Surgery, Hand Surgery, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

CPT 64721

Release and/or relocation of hand nerve

$553.77Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 121,795 services

Providers submitted

$3392.83

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$553.77

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$435.48

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $3392.83 for this code and Medicare allowed $553.77 — 6.1× 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 $435.48 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $410.52
Hospital / facility: $562.03

The facility rate is higher for this code, which is unusual and generally means the service depends on equipment or staffing a hospital carries. 6,636 services were billed in an office setting and 115,159 in a facility.

Services: 121,795
Beneficiaries: 107,611
Providers billing it: 3,217
Total allowed: $67,446,417

What Medicare pays for CPT 64721

Across 121,795 services billed by 3,217 providers to 107,611 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $553.77 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 64721

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Ambulatory Surgical Center	46,063	40,537	$824.44	916
Orthopedic Surgery	36,773	32,585	$387.02	1,241
Hand Surgery	33,945	30,152	$392.11	886
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	3,475	3,056	$379.44	123
General Surgery	708	604	$386.08	17
Neurosurgery	332	290	$387.79	17
Sports Medicine	222	184	$406.98	9
Family Practice	98	78	$438.48	3
General Practice	56	21	$489.37	1
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation	54	46	$332.85	2
Diagnostic Radiology	54	45	$419.47	1
Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine	15	13	$433.07	1

64721 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	8,449	$653.11	$443.69	234
Florida	8,333	$552.84	$453.33	187
Illinois	6,421	$588.70	$465.00	149
Pennsylvania	6,033	$539.99	$437.44	151
Texas	4,912	$499.25	$408.20	156
Ohio	4,880	$515.11	$430.57	134
North Carolina	4,229	$511.89	$429.70	118
Tennessee	4,013	$537.33	$477.56	97
Massachusetts	3,803	$528.35	$398.47	81
Arizona	3,764	$581.85	$469.31	81
Virginia	3,758	$528.00	$426.03	97
New York	3,714	$596.22	$428.22	106
Indiana	3,529	$547.45	$456.79	89
South Carolina	3,161	$518.65	$441.64	64
Michigan	3,137	$548.40	$443.92	108
New Jersey	3,067	$643.78	$472.29	85
Maryland	2,990	$638.17	$506.84	67
Missouri	2,802	$499.08	$418.69	77
Washington	2,754	$579.38	$443.80	69
Colorado	2,724	$593.12	$469.70	68
Georgia	2,663	$578.84	$475.46	88
Wisconsin	2,546	$496.68	$413.20	80
Iowa	2,496	$568.32	$483.90	49
Alabama	1,972	$516.96	$468.69	52
Minnesota	1,798	$555.48	$444.39	75
Kansas	1,696	$471.58	$404.99	46
Arkansas	1,654	$458.35	$404.15	46
Connecticut	1,419	$635.99	$472.95	46
Montana	1,386	$555.77	$453.89	24
Nebraska	1,384	$531.62	$442.55	30
Louisiana	1,384	$495.92	$432.07	42
Mississippi	1,328	$534.68	$489.39	34
Delaware	1,314	$609.31	$482.86	17
Kentucky	1,307	$460.99	$388.76	45
New Hampshire	1,241	$576.65	$452.50	30
Nevada	1,083	$572.09	$449.73	28
Oregon	1,076	$624.61	$474.00	33
Oklahoma	1,073	$430.45	$366.72	38
Idaho	942	$511.07	$439.14	23
South Dakota	788	$365.44	$300.45	20
Utah	660	$527.72	$440.04	25
Wyoming	647	$598.89	$485.45	22
Rhode Island	559	$570.25	$449.69	15
Maine	519	$515.35	$415.81	18
New Mexico	438	$481.96	$390.65	15
West Virginia	432	$428.25	$360.69	15
North Dakota	419	$486.69	$394.69	9
Alaska	357	$727.79	$514.48	11
Vermont	270	$475.00	$382.01	7
District of Columbia	240	$497.88	$366.49	7
Hawaii	194	$612.23	$444.09	7
Puerto Rico	37	$524.27	$551.63	2

Related codes

64718Release and/or relocation of elbow nerve$559.85
64708Release of arm or leg nerve$313.51
64727Release of nerve$175.78
64772Incision or removal of spinal nerve$403.77
64722Release of unspecified nerve$209.77

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.