# CPT 72050

> Medicare paid $51.18 for CPT 72050 in the office (non-facility) setting and $51.18 in a facility under the Q1 2019 Physician Fee Schedule, effective January 2019. These are the national allowed amounts before the ~2% sequestration cut and before locality (GPCI) adjustment. This is a 11.1% increase from the previous quarter.

## What it is

A fuller plain-film study of the neck vertebrae than the short two- or three-picture version, adding angled views that open up the small openings where nerve roots exit and, often, an open-mouth view of the topmost vertebrae. More angles mean more chance of catching a subtle fracture, a narrowed nerve opening, or a slipped alignment that a front-and-side pair would miss. A still larger study exists for cases needing bending views on top of these.

## Selected release

- Release: Q1 2019 (2019 A)
- Effective: January 1 – March 31, 2019
- Status indicator: A
- Office (non-facility) national allowed amount: $51.18
- Facility national allowed amount: $51.18
- Sequestration: not applied

## RVUs and formula

- Work RVU: 0.31
- Office (non-facility) practice expense RVU: 1.08
- Facility practice expense RVU: 1.08
- Malpractice RVU: 0.03
- 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 (Q1 2019)
- CMS file: https://www.cms.gov/medicare/medicare-fee-for-service-payment/physicianfeesched/downloads/rvu19a.zip
- Parsed file: PPRRVU19_V1213.csv, row 11,973
- Canonical page: https://localishealth.com/cpt/72050/2019/A
- Release-specific citation URL: https://localishealth.com/cpt/72050/2019/A
- Last significant update: 2026-08-04T03:08:45+00:00