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CPT 34839

Bundled / not separately paid

34839 · PFS Q4 2016 · Historical

Status B is not separately payable under the PFS.

View applicable payment rules
View CMS source and method

Not at a published national rate. CPT 34839 carries status B (bundled) in the Q4 2016 release. Medicare folds payment for this code into the service it is incident to, never onto its own line. Treat the blank amount as unpriced, not as $0.

PFS status evidence

Physician relative value file (Q4 2016) · rvu16d.zip (PPRRVU16_V0804.csv row 7,844)
Inspect PFS status evidence
Code
34839
Release
Q4 2016, revision 1
Result
Bundled / not separately paid

Citations

  • Establishes the PFS status (B) and the resulting pathway for this code: bundled / not separately paid.

    Physician relative value file (PPRRVU)

    Q4 2016 · revision 1

    Latest revision of this release

    Release period: October 1 – December 31, 2016

    This PFS record alone does not establish a $0 allowance or a coverage determination. Any amount from another schedule needs its own evidence.

    Record details PPRRVU16_V0804.csv in rvu16d.zip (row 7,844)
    hcpcs (col 1)
    34839
    modifier (col 2)
    blank
    status_code (col 4)
    B

    SHA-256: 376b12d2df1b1c1abaed1e123e9501352bf559c75a0a4f87f52878742af491c9

    Original source file

Compact facts

Why is there no national PFS amount for 34839?

Its status indicator is B (bundled). Medicare folds payment for this code into the service it is incident to, never onto its own line. Status B is not separately payable under the PFS.

Payment considerations Copy link

Review the applicable inputs and payment rules. Each link opens the supporting detail on this page.

Global surgery Context required
Other payment indicators (9)

Facility/non-facility: Not determined, Professional/technical component: Does not apply, Bilateral adjustment: Does not apply, Multiple-procedure reduction: Does not apply, Assistant/co-surgeon treatment: Does not apply, NCCI same-day edits: Not determined, MUE behavior: Not determined, Other fee-schedule routing: Does not apply, Contractor pricing: Does not apply.

Why a 34839 line may not pay separately Copy link

CMS publishes no separately payable amount for 34839 in this release, so reconciling the line means establishing which status governed the date of service rather than chasing a fee-schedule difference.

What to reconcile

  • Confirm the status that governed the date of service before working this line as a short payment—CMS publishes no separately payable fee-schedule amount for it in this release.
  • Ask the MAC which global period it assigned: the contractor sets the follow-up window for this code, so whether a post-operative visit should have paid depends on the contractor that priced it.
  • Check for documentation on file before appealing an assistant-at-surgery denial: payment on the -80 or -AS line is restricted for this procedure unless medical necessity is established.
  • Reprice the line against the release, locality, setting, modifier and participation status that applied to the date of service before treating any difference as an underpayment.

Nearby payment lines

National Q4 2016 amounts at GPCI 1.000. A blank means this schedule does not publish a payable PFS amount.

No comparison lines are present in this release.

Check an actual payment Model this code in a contract

Sources: CMS Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Relative Value Files; CMS Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Relative Value Files (status indicator field); CMS Medicare Claims Processing Manual (Pub. 100-04); 42 USC 1395w-4(i)(2) (SSA §1848(i)(2))—Assistants-at-surgery.

Payment rules

Global period: what 34839's fee already covers Copy link

YYY Contractor decides

Your Medicare Administrative Contractor decides whether a global period applies and sets its length when it prices the code. The result is 0, 10, or 90 days.

Billing policy Copy link

What 34839's billing-policy indicators mean. These show for every code, priced or not: a restriction like "bilateral not allowed" still matters on a carrier-priced code.

Policy Value What it means
Bilateral surgery 0 No bilateral adjustment. The 150% bilateral payment adjustment does not apply to this procedure.
Assistant at surgery 0 Restricted without documentation. Payment for an assistant at surgery is restricted for this procedure unless supporting documentation establishes medical necessity.
Co-surgeons 0 Not permitted. Medicare does not recognize co-surgeons (modifier 62) for this procedure.
Team surgery 0 Not permitted. Medicare does not recognize a surgical team (modifier 66) for this procedure.
Multiple procedures 0 No reduction. No payment reduction applies when this procedure is billed with other procedures on the same date—each is treated as unrelated.
Professional/technical split 0 No PC/TC split. This is a physician service code; the professional/technical split does not apply, and the code is billed as a single service.

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 34839.

See every current NCCI pair for 34839 →

Common payment questions Copy link

Why would a Medicare claim for 34839 be denied or paid less?

These come from CMS indicators on this page, not general billing advice.

Payer-specific coverage and documentation rules live outside these files, so a claim that clears every check here can still be denied on other grounds.

History

Rate history by release Copy link

National non-facility amount for 34839 across quarterly releases.

Release Status Non-facility Facility
Q4 2026 takes effect Oct 1, 2026 B — —
Q3 2026 Jul 1, 2026 – Sep 30, 2026 B — —
Q2 2026 Apr 1, 2026 – Jun 30, 2026 B — —
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.

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Source & method

Show sources

This page uses CMS's Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Q4 2016 release (effective October 2016). National baselines use GPCI 1.000 and exclude sequestration. Status and payment instructions determine whether a national amount is established; blank RVUs stay blank. Releases are immutable: historical evidence remains tied to the specified release. Our methodology covers the depth: sourcing, parsing, versioning, and how we cross-check claims before they ship.

Physician relative value file (Q4 2016) · rvu16d.zip (PPRRVU16_V0804.csv row 7,844)

Use the (i) buttons next to each amount above for the exact row, columns, and math.

Cite this rate

This citation identifies the source release, so its evidence remains reproducible after a newer release lands.

CPT 34839 National PFS baseline: No national PFS rate (Q4 2016; participating; whole service; GPCI 1.000; sequestration excluded). Localis. https://localishealth.com/cpt/34839/2016/D