CPT code 00142: Lens surgery anesthesia, lens procedures2026 Medicare rate & RVUs

Medicare allowed amount for participating (non-QP) physicians, before deductible, coinsurance and claim adjustments. Not a patient’s bill or a hospital charge.

What 00142 covers

Code 00142 applies to anesthesia for operations on the crystalline lens, most commonly cataract removal with placement of an intraocular lens. Anesthesia professionals provide the service in hospital operating rooms and ambulatory surgery centers, supporting ophthalmic surgeons during procedures involving lens access and manipulation. The anesthesia claim represents the professional anesthesia service, not the surgeon’s lens procedure.

Use this code when the operative plan centers on lens surgery; other eye operations, such as corneal transplantation or vitreoretinal surgery, have separate anesthesia categories. The operative report should identify the lens procedure, and the anesthesia record should establish the practitioner’s service and start and stop times. Code 00142 has 4 base units; Medicare payment is (base units + time units) × the locality’s anesthesia conversion factor, which varies by locality. Time is reported in minutes and converted to 15-minute units to one decimal place, from preparation for anesthesia until personal attendance ends and the patient can safely be placed in postoperative care.

This summary was written with AI assistance from CMS physician fee schedule data and checked against the CMS billing rules shown here. Rates on this page come directly from CMS files.

Where 00142 pays more and less

The same RVUs, adjusted for each area’s costs. Open a locality for its calculation, history and nearby areas.

109 of 109 payment localities

00142 rates by state

Office rate range in each state. Select a state to see its payment localities.

How the 00142 rate is calculated

Each of 00142’s three RVUs is multiplied by a geographic index (GPCI) for the payment locality, added up, and multiplied by the conversion factor. Drag the indexes or enter a ZIP to see what moves the rate.

Payment rules and modifiers for 00142

00142 has no global surgery period, no multiple-procedure, bilateral or assistant-at-surgery adjustment, and no professional/technical split. What changes the payment is where the service happens: the place of service on the claim decides whether Medicare pays the office or the facility rate.

00142 compared with similar codes

How to choose

00140Eye procedure anesthesiaEye procedures not otherwise specified

Choose 00142 for an operation on the crystalline lens. Use 00140 for eye procedures that do not fit a more specific anesthesia category.

00144Corneal transplant anesthesiaCorneal graft surgery

Use 00144 for anesthesia during corneal transplantation; 00142 is for operations on the crystalline lens.

00145Retinal surgery anesthesiaVitreous and retina

Use 00145 for vitreoretinal surgery. Code 00142 applies when the operative focus is the crystalline lens.

00147Iridectomy anesthesiaIris surgery

Use 00147 for iridectomy involving the iris; 00142 is for lens surgery, such as cataract removal.

Codes related to 00142

Related codes aren’t interchangeable: bill the code that matches the service performed.

Where these rates come from

FeeBase calculates base physician payments from CMS work, practice-expense and malpractice RVUs, adjusted by each locality’s geographic indexes and the conversion factor. Services without a published rate are labeled, never given a made-up amount. Amounts are Medicare allowed amounts before claim adjustments: not a patient’s bill or a commercial rate.

CMS RVU26D · effective Oct 1, 2026 through the day before Jan 1, 2027

Open CMS sourceHow we calculate rates