CPT 00120
Priced using anesthesia methodology — base units plus time units, not the standard RVU formula.
No national payment amount
Anesthesia code: paid via base + time units × a separate anesthesia conversion factor, not the standard PFS RVU formula. Supply a locality (and time_minutes for a specific amount) to compute it.
~$189.72 for a 60-minute example case in Dallas, TX
Formula (base_units + time_units) × anesthesia_cf time_units = time_minutes / 15. The anesthesia conversion factor is CMS's published locality-adjusted value. Citations
Source
Anesthesia has no single national rate — payment is (base units + time units) × the locality's anesthesia conversion factor. The amount above is an example, computed with Dallas, TX rates, before sequestration. Enter your ZIP and your own case length for your locality's number.
Base units 5 — set by CMS for this code and the same in every locality. One time unit is 15 minutes, so a 60-minute case adds 4 time units.
How much does Medicare pay for CPT 00120? Copy link
CPT 00120 is an anesthesia code, so Medicare has no single national rate: payment is (base units + time units) × the locality's anesthesia conversion factor — for example, about $189.72 for a 60-minute case in Dallas, TX under the Q4 2023 release, before sequestration.
Source: Physician relative value file (Q4 2023) · effective October 2023 · materially updated Aug 4, 2026 · compact facts
Why isn't there a national PFS amount?
- Status J (Anesthesia): Medicare prices this under the anesthesia formula — (base units + time units) × the locality anesthesia conversion factor — not the standard RVU formula. Ask for a locality to see that factor.
- Anesthesia code: paid via base + time units × a separate anesthesia conversion factor, not the standard PFS RVU formula. Supply a locality (and time_minutes for a specific amount) to compute it.
CMS evidence · 2 sources
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Common questions Copy link
Why is there no payment amount for 00120?
Its status indicator is J (anesthesia). Medicare prices this under the anesthesia formula — (base units + time units) × the locality anesthesia conversion factor — not the standard RVU formula. Ask for a locality to see that factor. The blank is deliberate: the amount is either unknown or paid under another provision, so reading it as $0 would be wrong.
When does this rate change?
CMS publishes a fee schedule release every quarter (January, April, July, October), and each is versioned here. See what changed each release, or get an email when a new release moves rates.
Sources: CMS Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Relative Value Files.
Applicable payment rules Copy link
Only the rules that can matter for 00120, each linking to its detail on this page.
Can you bill it with another code? Copy link
Enter a second CPT or HCPCS code billed on the same date of service. We'll check the current NCCI procedure-to-procedure edit between it and 00120.
How often 00120 is billed Copy link
Across Original Medicare in CY2024, 00120 ranked #1,735 of the 7,879 CPT codes billed to Medicare that year, by patients served or total allowed dollars. It repeats: a patient billed for it in 2024 was billed 1.5 times on average that year.
2024 Medicare fee-for-service national totals. They exclude Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and commercial volume, so real-world use runs higher. This is a calendar-year snapshot from the CMS Physician & Other Practitioners dataset, on a different cycle from the Q4 2023 fee schedule above.
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Source & method
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This is computed from CMS's Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Q4 2023 release (schedule pfs, effective October 2023). National amounts apply a GPCI of 1.000 and leave sequestration off. The status indicator decides payability, never the RVU values, so a blank RVU stays blank. Releases are immutable: a rate retrieved for a past quarter always reflects that release. Our methodology covers the depth: sourcing, parsing, versioning, and how we cross-check claims before they ship.
Use the (i) buttons next to each amount above for the exact row, columns, and math.
Cite this rate
This link keeps pointing at the Q4 2023 figures, even after a newer release lands.
CPT 00120 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule rate (Q4 2023). Localis. https://localishealth.com/cpt/00120/2023/D