# CPT 72148

> Medicare paid $229.32 for CPT 72148 in the office (non-facility) setting and $229.32 in a facility under the Q1 2018 Physician Fee Schedule, effective January 2018. These are the national allowed amounts before the ~2% sequestration cut and before locality (GPCI) adjustment. This is a 1.1% increase from the previous quarter.

## What it is

A magnetic resonance imaging study of the lower spine performed without contrast. It is commonly used to evaluate back pain, nerve compression, and disc disease.

## Selected release

- Release: Q1 2018 (2018 A)
- Effective: January 1 – March 31, 2018
- Status indicator: A
- Office (non-facility) national allowed amount: $229.32
- Facility national allowed amount: $229.32
- Sequestration: not applied

## RVUs and formula

- Work RVU: 1.48
- Office (non-facility) practice expense RVU: 4.79
- Facility practice expense RVU: 4.79
- Malpractice RVU: 0.10
- Conversion factor: 35.9996
- Formula: `(work_rvu × work_gpci + pe_rvu × pe_gpci + mp_rvu × mp_gpci) × conversion_factor`

## Source and citation

- Source: Physician relative value file (Q1 2018)
- CMS file: https://www.cms.gov/medicare/medicare-fee-for-service-payment/physicianfeesched/downloads/rvu18ar1.zip
- Parsed file: PPRRVU18_JAN.csv, row 11,817
- Canonical page: https://localishealth.com/cpt/72148/2018/A
- Release-specific citation URL: https://localishealth.com/cpt/72148/2018/A
- Last significant update: 2026-08-04T03:08:09+00:00