CPT 90953
Contractor-priced — your Medicare Administrative Contractor sets the amount, not a national fee schedule.
No national payment amount in Q4 2023
Your Medicare Administrative Contractor prices this code case by case, usually after reviewing documentation.
Contractor amounts on file today
$319.19–$478.85
We hold no contractor-published amount for 90953 in Q4 2023. The figures above are what contractors publish now , across 46 of 119 payment localities on file — not what your contractor paid in Q4 2023.
Reading an old claim? Keep this page for Q4 2023 and open the current 90953 page for today’s.
Did Medicare pay separately for CPT 90953 in Q4 2023? Copy link
Not at a published national rate. CPT 90953 carries status C (carrier-priced) in the Q4 2023 release. Your Medicare Administrative Contractor prices this code case by case, usually after reviewing documentation. Treat the blank amount as unpriced, not as $0.
Source: Physician relative value file (Q4 2023) · effective October 2023 · materially updated Aug 4, 2026 · compact facts
Why isn't there a national PFS amount?
- Status C (Carrier-priced): Your Medicare Administrative Contractor prices this code case by case, usually after reviewing documentation.
- Carrier-priced: no national payment amount.
CMS evidence · 2 sources
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Common questions Copy link
Why is there no payment amount for 90953?
Its status indicator is C (carrier-priced). Your Medicare Administrative Contractor prices this code case by case, usually after reviewing documentation. The blank is deliberate: the amount is either unknown or paid under another provision, so reading it as $0 would be wrong.
Why would a Medicare claim for 90953 be denied or paid less?
These come from CMS indicators on this page, not general billing advice.
- Its status indicator is C (carrier-priced) — Your Medicare Administrative Contractor prices this code case by case, usually after reviewing documentation. See status indicators
- Bilateral surgery: no bilateral adjustment. See billing policy
- Assistant at surgery: restricted without documentation. See billing policy
- Co-surgeons: not permitted. See billing policy
- Team surgery: not permitted. See billing policy
Payer-specific coverage and documentation rules live outside these files, so a claim that clears every check here can still be denied on other grounds.
When does this rate change?
CMS publishes a fee schedule release every quarter (January, April, July, October), and each is versioned here. See what changed each release, or get an email when a new release moves rates.
Sources: CMS Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Relative Value Files.
Applicable payment rules Copy link
Only the rules that can matter for 90953, each linking to its detail on this page.
Global period: what 90953's fee already covers Copy link
The global surgery concept does not apply to this code.
| Modifier | Reports |
|---|---|
| -25 | A significant, separately identifiable E/M on the same day as the procedure, beyond its usual pre- and post-operative care. |
A modifier reports what happened; it does not by itself make a service payable. Documentation has to support it.
Billing policy Copy link
What 90953's billing-policy indicators mean. These show for every code, priced or not: a restriction like "bilateral not allowed" still matters on a carrier-priced code.
| Policy | Value | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Bilateral surgery | 0 | No bilateral adjustment. The 150% bilateral payment adjustment does not apply to this procedure. |
| Assistant at surgery | 0 | Restricted without documentation. Payment for an assistant at surgery is restricted for this procedure unless supporting documentation establishes medical necessity. |
| Co-surgeons | 0 | Not permitted. Medicare does not recognize co-surgeons (modifier 62) for this procedure. |
| Team surgery | 0 | Not permitted. Medicare does not recognize a surgical team (modifier 66) for this procedure. |
| Multiple procedures | 0 | No reduction. No payment reduction applies when this procedure is billed with other procedures on the same date — each is treated as unrelated. |
| Professional/technical split | 0 | No PC/TC split. This is a physician service code; the professional/technical split does not apply, and the code is billed as a single service. |
Can you bill it with another code? Copy link
Enter a second CPT or HCPCS code billed on the same date of service. We'll check the current NCCI procedure-to-procedure edit between it and 90953.
Did this answer your question about CPT 90953?
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Source & method
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This is computed from CMS's Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Q4 2023 release (schedule pfs, effective October 2023). National amounts apply a GPCI of 1.000 and leave sequestration off. The status indicator decides payability, never the RVU values, so a blank RVU stays blank. Releases are immutable: a rate retrieved for a past quarter always reflects that release. Our methodology covers the depth: sourcing, parsing, versioning, and how we cross-check claims before they ship.
Use the (i) buttons next to each amount above for the exact row, columns, and math.
Cite this rate
This link keeps pointing at the Q4 2023 figures, even after a newer release lands.
CPT 90953 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule rate (Q4 2023). Localis. https://localishealth.com/cpt/90953/2023/D