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CMS RVU26D · Effective 2026-10-01

61751 Brain biopsy Medicare reimbursement rates in Oklahoma

Reports stereotactic sampling of an intracranial lesion using CT or MRI guidance, typically when tissue is needed to establish a brain lesion’s diagnosis. Compare 61751 office and facility rates across CMS payment localities in Oklahoma.

Amounts below use the non-QP conversion factor for participating physicians. These are base physician payments before claim-level adjustments, not patient costs or total hospital charges.

What does Medicare pay for 61751 in Oklahoma?

Oklahoma has 1 payment locality in this comparison. Use the service location to choose the applicable amount. These are the supported base rates for the payment area shown below, using the same CMS release.

Office / nonfacility

No supported rate

Facility setting

$1273.76

1 of 1 localities have a supported rate.

Payment area: Oklahoma

One mapped payment locality.

These are locality ranges, not averages or address-specific quotes. A facility-setting amount covers the physician service; it does not include a hospital’s separate bill. Choose a locality below to inspect its calculation, compare other payment areas, or price a percentage of Medicare.

Find 61751 in your payment locality →

Neurosurgery

About 61751: CT- or MR-guided brain biopsy

Reports stereotactic sampling of an intracranial lesion using CT or MRI guidance, typically when tissue is needed to establish a brain lesion’s diagnosis.

A neurosurgeon uses stereotactic planning and CT or MRI guidance to direct instruments through a cranial opening to an intracranial lesion and obtain tissue. The service is typically performed in an operating room for a suspected brain tumor or another lesion that requires pathologic diagnosis; the specimen is sent for examination. The operative report should identify the target, the stereotactic approach, the imaging guidance used, and the tissue obtained.

Select this code when the biopsy is performed with CT or MRI guidance; distinguish it from stereotactic biopsy without that imaging guidance. The code has a 90-day global period: the day-before preoperative visit and 90 days of related postoperative care are included. For multiple procedures in one session, Medicare pays the highest-valued procedure in full and reduces the others to 50%. Modifier 50 is inappropriate. Assistant-at-surgery payment is barred by statutory restriction; co-surgeon payment requires supporting documentation, and team surgery is not permitted.

CMS billing rules for 61751

Global period
Major surgery with a 90-day global period: the day-before preoperative visit and 90 days of related postoperative care are included.
Multiple procedures
Standard multiple procedure reduction: the highest-valued procedure is paid in full and others at 50% when performed in the same session.
Bilateral procedures
Bilateral adjustment does not apply; the descriptor or anatomy makes modifier 50 inappropriate.
Assistant at surgery
Statutory restriction: assistant at surgery is not paid.
Co-surgeons
Co-surgeons paid only with supporting documentation.
Team surgery
Team surgery not permitted.

Where the value comes from

  • Work RVU18.32 · 44%
  • Practice expense (office) RVU15.49 · 37%
  • Malpractice RVU7.70 · 19%

1.3K

Medicare services in 2024 · #2790 by national volume

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.

61751 compared with similar codes

Office rates for Oklahoma, from the same CMS release.

61750

Brain biopsy

Without CT/MR guidance

No office rate

Both describe stereotactic intracranial lesion biopsy. Choose 61751 when CT or MRI guidance is used; 61750 is for the procedure without that guidance.

61510

Brain tumor excision

Supratentorial, nonmeningioma

No office rate

61751 reports stereotactic tissue sampling with CT or MRI guidance. Code 61510 is for open excision of a supratentorial brain tumor.

61736

Laser ablation

Single trajectory, simple lesion

No office rate

61751 obtains tissue for diagnosis. Code 61736 describes laser interstitial thermal treatment of an intracranial lesion.

Compare 61751 by payment locality

Find the payment area for your service address, then open its rate page for calculation inputs, release history and the percentage-of-Medicare tool. A city may cross payment-area boundaries; the ZIP lookup above helps resolve the location.

1 of 1 payment localities

Office and facility base rates · shared scale starting at $0

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How this local rate is calculated

Each RVU component is multiplied by its own geographic practice cost index (GPCI). The three adjusted components are added, then multiplied by the conversion factor. These are the inputs used for 61751 in Oklahoma.

PPRRVU2026_Oct_nonQPP.csv

6,881

Code
61751
Physician work
18.32
Practice expense
15.49
Malpractice
7.70

GPCI2026.csv

86

Locality
Oklahoma
Physician work
1.000
Practice expense
0.893
Malpractice
0.777
Facility calculation for 61751 in Oklahoma
ComponentRVULocality factorAdjusted
Physician work18.32× 1.00018.3200
Practice expense15.49× 0.89313.8326
Malpractice7.70× 0.7775.9829
Total RVUs38.1355
Conversion factor× 33.4009

Facility rate, Oklahoma$1273.76

Values as parsed from CMS release RVU26D, effective 2026-10-01. The amount is rounded to the nearest cent only at the end.
Explore RVUs, geographic factors and the full formula

Facility

Facility calculation inputs
ComponentRVULocal GPCI
Work18.321
Practice expense15.490.893
Malpractice7.70.777

(18.32 × 1 + 15.49 × 0.893 + 7.7 × 0.777) × $33.4009 = $1273.76

The office and facility calculations use their respective practice-expense RVUs. The facility amount here is the physician fee, not a separate hospital or facility bill.

61751 billing questions

How does this differ from 61750?

Use 61751 for stereotactic intracranial biopsy performed with CT or MRI guidance. Code 61750 describes stereotactic biopsy without that imaging guidance.

What documentation supports 61751?

Document the intracranial target, stereotactic approach, use of CT or MRI to guide the biopsy, and tissue obtained.

Can modifier 50 be used for bilateral targets?

No. CMS identifies bilateral adjustment as inappropriate for this code, so modifier 50 is not suitable.

Is assistant-at-surgery payment available?

No. CMS lists a statutory restriction on assistant-at-surgery payment for 61751.

How are other procedures in the same session paid?

Under the standard multiple procedure reduction, the highest-valued procedure is paid in full and the others are paid at 50%.

Where these rates come from

FeeBase calculates base physician payments from CMS work, practice-expense, and malpractice RVUs, adjusted by each locality’s geographic indices and the applicable conversion factor. Unavailable or separately priced services are labeled rather than assigned a made-up amount.

Source: RVU26D. Effective 2026-10-01 through the day before 2027-01-01.

RVUs for 61751PPRRVU2026_Oct_nonQPP.csv, line 6,881 (RVU26D)
Geographic factors for OklahomaGPCI2026.csv, line 86 (RVU26D)