How much does Medicare pay for CPT 64772?

Medicare allowed an average of $403.77 per service and paid $321.30 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $3370.18, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 64772?

Incision or removal of spinal nerve. It was billed 3,431 times to 1,779 Medicare beneficiaries by 91 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 64772 most?

Ambulatory Surgical Center, with 1,234 services from 30 clinicians. Next are Orthopedic Surgery, Physician Assistant, Hand Surgery.

CPT 64772

Incision or removal of spinal nerve

$403.77Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 3,431 services

Providers submitted

$3370.18

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$403.77

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$321.30

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $3370.18 for this code and Medicare allowed $403.77 — 8.3× 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 $321.30 (80%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 3,431
Beneficiaries: 1,779
Providers billing it: 91
Total allowed: $1,385,335

What Medicare pays for CPT 64772

Across 3,431 services billed by 91 providers to 1,779 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $403.77 per service. That is 1.9 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 64772

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Ambulatory Surgical Center	1,234	571	$573.03	30
Orthopedic Surgery	439	235	$345.51	14
Physician Assistant	405	280	$42.43	11
Hand Surgery	342	185	$330.53	12
Interventional Pain Management	258	76	$422.36	2
Anesthesiology	189	72	$396.46	4
Pain Management	171	68	$390.24	3
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	86	48	$335.52	3
General Surgery	85	80	$413.72	5
Sports Medicine	74	72	$279.72	2
Neurosurgery	61	56	$412.48	3
General Practice	50	23	$388.05	1
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation	37	13	$442.82	1

64772 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
Maryland	502	$541.39	$390.07	4
California	454	$318.01	$218.95	14
Arizona	376	$310.74	$230.62	6
Florida	232	$388.54	$327.84	7
New York	220	$512.96	$343.13	3
New Jersey	213	$550.93	$404.31	5
South Carolina	196	$280.11	$237.46	5
North Carolina	119	$460.16	$324.73	4
Michigan	91	$472.13	$397.92	2
Ohio	78	$362.01	$226.20	2
Mississippi	77	$425.52	$373.10	2
Montana	76	$549.50	$401.19	3
Nevada	72	$443.50	$356.95	2
Washington	65	$453.46	$360.68	2
Louisiana	64	$285.57	$224.14	1
Texas	62	$336.44	$270.92	3
Alabama	60	$249.01	$212.39	3
Virginia	57	$356.76	$280.11	3
South Dakota	44	$168.74	$139.09	2
Colorado	40	$492.26	$378.68	2
Pennsylvania	39	$345.53	$214.33	2
Georgia	36	$512.02	$434.49	2
Minnesota	34	$309.60	$217.13	1
Illinois	31	$316.51	$234.35	2
Vermont	29	$381.44	$318.70	1
Connecticut	27	$54.62	$34.40	1
Tennessee	26	$388.30	$254.07	1
Guam	23	$313.34	$239.03	1
Arkansas	20	$452.10	$351.90	1
Missouri	19	$398.92	$324.99	1
Kansas	18	$442.72	$439.21	1
Oregon	17	$379.15	$246.69	1
Massachusetts	14	$39.30	$29.98	1

Related codes

64721Release and/or relocation of hand nerve$553.77
64718Release and/or relocation of elbow nerve$559.85
64708Release of arm or leg nerve$313.51
64727Release of nerve$175.78
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.