CPT code 01991: Nerve block anesthesia, non-prone 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 01991 covers

This service covers anesthesia for a diagnostic or therapeutic nerve block or injection performed by a separate physician or qualified health care professional. It is commonly reported for pain-management procedures in an office, ambulatory surgery center, or hospital, with the proceduralist performing the injection and the anesthesia practitioner managing anesthesia. The non-prone positioning distinguishes this code from its prone-position counterpart.

Use this code for nerve blocks and injections that do not fall under a more specific anesthesia code for image-guided spinal procedures. The anesthesia record should support the practitioner’s service and show anesthesia start and end times; the procedure note should identify the block or injection, its body site, and patient positioning. This code has 3 base units. Medicare payment is (3 base units + time units) × the locality’s anesthesia conversion factor; 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 01991 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

01991 rates by state

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

How the 01991 rate is calculated

Each of 01991’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 01991

01991 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.

01991 compared with similar codes

How to choose

01992Prone injection anesthesiaDiagnostic or therapeutic blocks

The key distinction is patient position: 01992 is for a prone procedure, while 01991 is for a non-prone procedure.

01937Spinal procedure anesthesiaCervical or thoracic region

Use 01937 for anesthesia for a percutaneous image-guided procedure on the cervical or thoracic spine; 01991 covers the applicable nerve block or injection when a more specific image-guided spinal code does not apply.

01938Spinal procedure anesthesiaLumbar or sacral

Use 01938 for anesthesia for a percutaneous image-guided procedure on the lumbar or sacral spine; 01991 covers the applicable nerve block or injection when a more specific image-guided spinal code does not apply.

Codes related to 01991

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