CPT code 00322: Thyroid biopsy anesthesia, needle biopsy only2026 Medicare rate & RVUs in Massachusetts

CMS doesn’t publish an office rate for 00322 in Massachusetts.

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

What 00322 covers

This service is anesthesia for a needle biopsy of the thyroid, often performed to investigate a thyroid nodule. An anesthesia professional reports it when providing anesthesia for the biopsy in an office or facility setting. The operative documentation identifies the thyroid as the biopsy site and confirms a needle biopsy; the anesthesia record supports the anesthesia service and records its start and end times.

Select 00322 only for thyroid needle biopsy. For patients age 1 year or older, 00320 applies to thyroidectomy, parathyroid surgery, and other procedures involving the esophagus, thyroid, larynx, trachea, or neck lymphatics; 00326 applies to larynx or trachea procedures in patients under 1 year. This code has 3 base units, and Medicare payment is (base units + time units) multiplied by the locality's anesthesia conversion factor. Anesthesia time is measured in minutes and converted to 15-minute units to one decimal place, from preparation until the practitioner is no longer personally attending and the patient can safely be placed under 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 00322 pays more and less in Massachusetts

How the 00322 rate is calculated

Each of 00322’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 00322

00322 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.

00322 compared with similar codes

How to choose

00320Neck anesthesiaAge one or older

00322 is specifically for thyroid needle biopsy. For patients age 1 year or older, 00320 applies to other neck procedures, including thyroidectomy and parathyroid surgery.

00326Airway anesthesiaLarynx or trachea, under 1 year

00326 applies to larynx or trachea procedures in patients under 1 year; it is not the code for thyroid needle biopsy.

00350Neck vascular anesthesiaMajor-vessel procedures

00350 applies to major neck-vessel procedures, not a needle biopsy of the thyroid.

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