CPT code 00148: Ophthalmoscopy anesthesia, diagnostic eye examination2026 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 00148 covers

This service covers anesthesia for ophthalmoscopic examination of the eye, including examination of the fundus when the patient cannot tolerate the examination while awake. It is commonly used for young children or patients unable to cooperate with a necessary eye examination. An anesthesia practitioner provides and reports the anesthesia service in an office or facility setting; the ophthalmologist performs and documents the examination.

Choose this code when ophthalmoscopy is the anesthetized procedure, rather than anesthesia for a separately defined eye operation such as lens, corneal, retinal, or iris surgery. The operative record should identify the examination performed, and the anesthesia record should support the service and its time. This code has 4 base units; Medicare payment is (base units plus time units) multiplied by the anesthesia conversion factor, which varies by locality. Anesthesia time is counted in minutes from when the practitioner begins preparing the patient until the practitioner is no longer in personal attendance and the patient can safely be placed under postoperative care; CMS converts minutes to 15-minute units to one decimal place.

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 00148 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

00148 rates by state

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

How the 00148 rate is calculated

Each of 00148’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 00148

00148 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.

00148 compared with similar codes

How to choose

00140Eye procedure anesthesiaEye procedures not otherwise specified

Use 00148 for anesthesia for ophthalmoscopy; 00140 is for other eye procedures without a more specific anesthesia category.

00142Lens surgery anesthesiaLens procedures

Use 00142 when the anesthetized operation is lens surgery, rather than an ophthalmoscopic examination.

00147Iridectomy anesthesiaIris surgery

Use 00147 for anesthesia during iridectomy; 00148 is for ophthalmoscopy.

00145Retinal surgery anesthesiaVitreous and retina

Use 00145 for vitreoretinal surgery, not for an examination that consists of ophthalmoscopy.

Codes related to 00148

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