CPT code 01940: Spinal neurolysis anesthesia, lumbar or sacral2026 Medicare rate & RVUs in New York
Anesthesia for percutaneous, image-guided destruction of lumbar or sacral spinal nerves or nerve roots, including procedures using a neurolytic agent.
CMS doesn’t publish an office rate for 01940 in New York.
Medicare allowed amount for participating (non-QP) physicians, before deductible, coinsurance and claim adjustments. Not a patient’s bill or a hospital charge.
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On this page 9 sections
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 in New York
The same RVUs, adjusted for each area’s costs. Open a locality for its calculation, history and nearby areas.
| Payment locality | Office | Facility |
|---|---|---|
| Manhattan, NY | Unavailable | Unavailable |
| NYC suburbs and Long Island, NY | Unavailable | Unavailable |
| Poughkeepsie and northern NYC suburbs, NY | Unavailable | Unavailable |
| Queens, NY | Unavailable | Unavailable |
| Rest of New York | Unavailable | Unavailable |
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.
How the rate is built · 01940
RVUs × geographic indexes × conversion factor
Work0.00
0.00 RVUs× 1.000 GPCI
Practice expense0.00
0.00 RVUs× 1.000 GPCI
Malpractice0.00
0.00 RVUs× 1.000 GPCI
Adjusted RVUs
0.0000
Conversion factor
$33.4009
Medicare rate
$0.00
Every GPCI starts at 1.000, the national rate. Enter a ZIP or drag a slider.
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.
Place of service · 01940
Which rate does Medicare pay?
The POS code on the claim line (CMS-1500 box 24B).
POS 11 · non-facility rate · national
—
01940 isn’t priced in this setting.
01940 compared with similar codes
Compare codes · National
4 codes, side by side
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.
01940 billing questions
When should a biller choose 01940 instead of 01938?
Use 01940 for lumbar or sacral image-guided destruction of spinal nerves or nerve roots. Use 01938 for a lumbar or sacral image-guided injection, drainage, or aspiration procedure.
How does 01940 differ from 01939?
Both cover image-guided spinal nerve or nerve-root destruction. Code 01940 is for the lumbar or sacral region, while 01939 is for the cervical or thoracic region.
What should the operative and anesthesia records show?
The operative report should identify the lumbar or sacral target and the destructive procedure. The anesthesia record should support the anesthesia service and document its start and stop times.
Are time units added to the base units?
Yes. This code has 4 base units, and Medicare adds time units based on anesthesia minutes converted to 15-minute units to one decimal place.
Does 01940 report the nerve-destruction procedure itself?
No. It reports the anesthesia service for that intervention; the clinician performing the nerve-destruction procedure reports the operative service separately.
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
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