# CPT 36478

> Medicare paid $1,354.46 for CPT 36478 in the office (non-facility) setting and $367.18 in a facility under the Q2 2014 Physician Fee Schedule, effective April 2014. These are the national allowed amounts before the ~2% sequestration cut and before locality (GPCI) adjustment.

## What it is

Closure of a leaking superficial leg vein using laser energy delivered from inside the vessel. A fiber is passed up the vein through a small puncture, numbing fluid is placed around the vein, and the fiber is drawn back slowly while laser light heats the wall so the vein seals and is eventually absorbed. The distinguishing feature against its neighbours is the energy source, laser rather than radiofrequency or an injected chemical. This entry is the first vein treated in a leg, with a companion code for each additional one.

## Selected release

- Release: Q2 2014 (2014 B)
- Effective: April 1 – June 30, 2014
- Status indicator: A
- Office (non-facility) national allowed amount: $1354.46
- Facility national allowed amount: $367.18
- Sequestration: not applied

## RVUs and formula

- Work RVU: 6.72
- Office (non-facility) practice expense RVU: 29.83
- Facility practice expense RVU: 2.27
- Malpractice RVU: 1.26
- Conversion factor: 35.8228
- Formula: `(work_rvu × work_gpci + pe_rvu × pe_gpci + mp_rvu × mp_gpci) × conversion_factor`

## Source and citation

- Source: Physician relative value file (Q2 2014)
- CMS file: https://www.cms.gov/medicare/medicare-fee-for-service-payment/physicianfeesched/downloads/rvu14b.zip
- Parsed file: PPRRVU14_V0324.csv, row 7,778
- Canonical page: https://localishealth.com/cpt/36478/2014/B
- Release-specific citation URL: https://localishealth.com/cpt/36478/2014/B
- Last significant update: 2026-08-04T03:05:19+00:00