CPT code 01830: Wrist joint anesthesia, other wrist/hand joint 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 01830 covers

01830 is anesthesia for open, operative arthroscopic, or endoscopic procedures involving the distal radius or ulna, wrist, or hand joints when no more specific anesthesia category describes the operation. Typical services include therapeutic wrist arthroscopy and open wrist or hand joint reconstruction or fusion. These procedures are performed by orthopedic or hand surgeons in hospital operating rooms and ambulatory surgery centers; an anesthesia practitioner, such as an anesthesiologist or CRNA, reports the anesthesia service.

Select 01829 for diagnostic wrist arthroscopy and 01832 for total wrist replacement; 01830 covers other qualifying open or operative arthroscopic/endoscopic joint procedures. The operative report should identify the joint and bones treated, the procedure, and the approach; the anesthesia record should support the service and its start and end times. 01830 has 3 base units; Medicare payment is (base units + time units) multiplied by the locality’s anesthesia conversion factor. Anesthesia time is reported in minutes and converted to 15-minute units to one decimal place, from preparation for anesthesia until the practitioner is no longer in personal attendance 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 01830 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

01830 rates by state

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

How the 01830 rate is calculated

Each of 01830’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 01830

01830 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.

01830 compared with similar codes

How to choose

01829Wrist arthroscopy anesthesiaDiagnostic procedure

Choose 01829 for diagnostic wrist arthroscopy. Use 01830 when arthroscopy is operative or the qualifying procedure is open.

01832Wrist replacement anesthesiaTotal wrist replacement

01832 is specific to total wrist replacement. Other qualifying open or operative arthroscopic/endoscopic procedures on wrist or hand joints use 01830.

01820Wrist and hand bone anesthesiaClosed bone procedures

01820 describes anesthesia for closed procedures involving the radius or ulna bones. Use 01830 for qualifying open or operative arthroscopic/endoscopic joint procedures.

Codes related to 01830

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