CPT code 01420: Knee cast anesthesia, application, removal, or repair2026 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 01420 covers

01420 covers anesthesia for applying, removing, or repairing a cast involving the knee joint. The anesthesia professional reports this service; the surgeon or other treating practitioner reports the cast procedure. The code is specific to cast care at the knee, not anesthesia for a knee operation such as arthroscopy or joint replacement.

Choose 01420 when the procedure record identifies cast application, removal, or repair at the knee. The procedure documentation and anesthesia record should establish the site and service performed, the anesthesia practitioner, and anesthesia start and end times. Use 01490 for cast care involving the lower leg. This code has 3 base units; Medicare payment is (base units plus time units) multiplied by the locality’s anesthesia conversion factor. Report anesthesia time in minutes; CMS converts it to 15-minute units to one decimal place, from the start of patient preparation through the end of personal attendance when 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 01420 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

01420 rates by state

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

How the 01420 rate is calculated

Each of 01420’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 01420

01420 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.

01420 compared with similar codes

How to choose

01490Lower-leg cast anesthesiaApplication, removal, or repair

01420 is for cast care involving the knee joint; 01490 is for cast care involving the lower leg.

01400Knee surgery anesthesiaOpen or arthroscopic procedures

01420 applies to knee cast care. 01400 applies when the anesthetic is for an open or arthroscopic knee operation.

01402Knee replacement anesthesiaTotal knee arthroplasty

Use 01402 for anesthesia for total knee replacement; 01420 is for knee cast application, removal, or repair.

Codes related to 01420

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