CPT code 01940: Spinal neurolysis anesthesia, lumbar or sacral2026 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 01940 covers

This anesthesia supports percutaneous, image-guided procedures that use a neurolytic agent to destroy lumbar or sacral spinal nerves or nerve roots. An anesthesiologist or CRNA provides the anesthesia while the procedural clinician performs the intervention, typically in a hospital or ambulatory surgery center.

Select 01940 for lumbar or sacral nerve or nerve-root destruction; use 01938 for lumbar or sacral image-guided injection, drainage, or aspiration, 01939 for cervical or thoracic destruction, and 01942 for lumbar or sacral neuromodulation or intravertebral procedures. The operative report should identify the treated region and destructive technique, while the anesthesia record supports the service and documents anesthesia start and stop times. Medicare payment is 4 base units plus time units, multiplied by the locality’s anesthesia conversion factor. Anesthesia time is reported in minutes, converted to 15-minute units to one decimal place, and runs from the practitioner’s preparation of the patient until personal attendance ends and the patient can safely be placed under postoperative care; the conversion factor varies by locality.

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 01940 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

01940 rates by state

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

How the 01940 rate is calculated

Each of 01940’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 01940

01940 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.

01940 compared with similar codes

How to choose

01938Spinal procedure anesthesiaLumbar or sacral

01938 covers lumbar or sacral image-guided injection, drainage, or aspiration procedures. Choose 01940 when the intervention destroys spinal nerves or nerve roots.

01939Neurolysis anesthesiaCervical or thoracic

Both codes cover image-guided spinal nerve or nerve-root destruction; 01939 is for cervical or thoracic targets, and 01940 is for lumbar or sacral targets.

01942Spinal procedure anesthesiaLumbar and sacral

01942 covers lumbar or sacral image-guided neuromodulation or intravertebral procedures. Choose 01940 for image-guided nerve or nerve-root destruction.

Codes related to 01940

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