# CPT 64633

> Medicare paid $430.91 for CPT 64633 in the office (non-facility) setting and $233.14 in a facility under the Q3 2020 Physician Fee Schedule, effective July 2020. These are the national allowed amounts before the ~2% sequestration cut and before locality (GPCI) adjustment. This price has been unchanged since Q1 2020, when it increased 0.6%.

## 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: Q3 2020 (2020 C)
- Effective: July 1 – September 30, 2020
- Status indicator: A
- Office (non-facility) national allowed amount: $430.91
- Facility national allowed amount: $233.14
- Sequestration: not applied

## RVUs and formula

- Work RVU: 3.84
- Office (non-facility) practice expense RVU: 7.73
- Facility practice expense RVU: 2.25
- Malpractice RVU: 0.37
- Conversion factor: 36.0896
- Formula: `(work_rvu × work_gpci + pe_rvu × pe_gpci + mp_rvu × mp_gpci) × conversion_factor`

## Source and citation

- Source: Physician relative value file (Q3 2020)
- CMS file: https://www.cms.gov/files/zip/rvu20c-updated-06192020.zip
- Parsed file: PPRRVU20_V0618.csv, row 11,566
- Canonical page: https://localishealth.com/cpt/64633/2020/A
- Release-specific citation URL: https://localishealth.com/cpt/64633/2020/C
- Last significant update: 2026-08-04T03:09:46+00:00