# CPT 64633

> Medicare paid $428.50 for CPT 64633 in the office (non-facility) setting and $231.73 in a facility under the Q4 2019 Physician Fee Schedule, effective October 2019. These are the national allowed amounts before the ~2% sequestration cut and before locality (GPCI) adjustment. This price has been unchanged since Q1 2019, when it decreased 0.1%.

## What it is

Deliberate destruction of the small nerve branches that carry pain from an arthritic facet joint in the neck or mid-back, almost always with a radiofrequency probe that heats the nerve until it stops conducting. Because the nerve regrows over months to a year or two, relief is long but not permanent. This entry covers the first facet joint treated on one side in the cervical or thoracic spine; the lower-back version and additional joints have their own codes. Unlike a facet injection, which delivers medication, this interrupts the nerve itself.

## Selected release

- Release: Q4 2019 (2019 D)
- Effective: October 1 – December 31, 2019
- Status indicator: A
- Office (non-facility) national allowed amount: $428.50
- Facility national allowed amount: $231.73
- Sequestration: not applied

## RVUs and formula

- Work RVU: 3.84
- Office (non-facility) practice expense RVU: 7.74
- Facility practice expense RVU: 2.28
- Malpractice RVU: 0.31
- Conversion factor: 36.0391
- Formula: `(work_rvu × work_gpci + pe_rvu × pe_gpci + mp_rvu × mp_gpci) × conversion_factor`

## Source and citation

- Source: Physician relative value file (Q4 2019)
- CMS file: https://www.cms.gov/medicare/medicare-fee-for-service-payment/physicianfeesched/downloads/rvu19d.zip
- Parsed file: PPRRVU19_OCT.csv, row 11,328
- Canonical page: https://localishealth.com/cpt/64633/2019/A
- Release-specific citation URL: https://localishealth.com/cpt/64633/2019/D
- Last significant update: 2026-08-04T03:09:13+00:00