# CPT 00144

> CPT 00144 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 $220.46 for a 60-minute case in Dallas, TX under the Q2 2018 release, before sequestration.

## What it is

Anesthesia care for a corneal transplant, in which a surgeon replaces a damaged or diseased cornea - the clear window at the front of the eye - with donor tissue. Keeping the eye completely still and keeping pressure inside the eye low and stable matters more here than in most eye surgery, since even a small pressure spike can push tissue out of an eye that has been surgically opened. It is usually done under general anesthesia or deep sedation with a regional eye block, rather than light sedation alone.

## Selected release

- Release: Q2 2018 (2018 B)
- Effective: April 1 – June 30, 2018
- Status indicator: J
- Office (non-facility) national allowed amount: not published
- Facility national allowed amount: not published
- Sequestration: not applied

## RVUs and formula

- Work RVU: not published
- Office (non-facility) practice expense RVU: not published
- Facility practice expense RVU: not published
- Malpractice RVU: not published
- Conversion factor: 35.9996
- Formula: `(work_rvu × work_gpci + pe_rvu × pe_gpci + mp_rvu × mp_gpci) × conversion_factor`

## Source and citation

- Source: Physician relative value file (Q2 2018)
- CMS file: https://www.cms.gov/medicare/medicare-fee-for-service-payment/physicianfeesched/downloads/rvu18b.zip
- Parsed file: PPRRVU18_APR.csv, row 4,605
- Canonical page: https://localishealth.com/cpt/00144/2018/B
- Release-specific citation URL: https://localishealth.com/cpt/00144/2018/B
- Last significant update: 2026-08-04T03:08:19+00:00