# CPT 29881

> Medicare paid $559.69 for CPT 29881 in the office (non-facility) setting and $559.69 in a facility under the Q2 2021 Physician Fee Schedule, effective April 2021. These are the national allowed amounts before the ~2% sequestration cut and before locality (GPCI) adjustment. This price has been unchanged since Q1 2021, when it decreased 0.6%.

## What it is

Minimally invasive (arthroscopic) knee surgery to remove or trim a torn meniscus, the cartilage cushion between the thighbone and shinbone, including any related joint debridement. It is one of the most frequently performed orthopedic procedures.

## Selected release

- Release: Q2 2021 (2021 B)
- Effective: April 1 – June 30, 2021
- Status indicator: A
- Office (non-facility) national allowed amount: $559.69
- Facility national allowed amount: $559.69
- Sequestration: not applied

## RVUs and formula

- Work RVU: 7.03
- Office (non-facility) practice expense RVU: 7.62
- Facility practice expense RVU: 7.62
- Malpractice RVU: 1.39
- Conversion factor: 34.8931
- Formula: `(work_rvu × work_gpci + pe_rvu × pe_gpci + mp_rvu × mp_gpci) × conversion_factor`

## Source and citation

- Source: Physician relative value file (Q2 2021)
- CMS file: https://www.cms.gov/files/zip/rvu21b-updated-03022021.zip
- Parsed file: PPRRVU21_APR.csv, row 7,819
- Canonical page: https://localishealth.com/cpt/29881/2021/A
- Release-specific citation URL: https://localishealth.com/cpt/29881/2021/B
- Last significant update: 2026-08-04T03:10:33+00:00