CPT 01402
Anesthesia for total knee replacement
The anesthesia code for a total knee arthroplasty. Like all anesthesia codes it is billed as base units plus time units, and it often sits alongside a separate charge for a nerve block placed for post-operative pain.
Billed to Medicare
$2,370
What providers submitted, on average, for this code in a hospital setting.
Medicare accepted
$224
What Medicare treated as payable. Not a commercial rate or a cash price.
The gap
10.6x
How many times the accepted amount the billed figure was.
National averages from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2024 data, retrieved 2026-09-14. Medicare fee-for-service, physician and practitioner claims only. The hospital's own charge for the same code is separate and is usually higher. Based on 472,201 services.
Among the 4 anesthesia codes on this site with CMS figures, this gap ranks 2 of 4 (median 10.3x). The widest is Anesthesia for total hip replacement at 10.7x.
Where this line goes wrong
Nerve block as a separate charge
A nerve block for pain after surgery may be billed separately from the anesthesia, but only if it was not the primary anesthetic. If the block was the anesthesia for the operation, it should not also appear as a separate line.
Time against the record
A knee replacement is typically a two-hour case. Anesthesia time that runs far beyond the operating room time is worth a question.
Check it, then ask
- 1
Ask for the anesthesia record. It shows the anesthesia start and stop times, which should match the minutes billed.
- 2
Check the modifier on the anesthesia line: AA means an anesthesiologist did it personally, QK or QY means the anesthesiologist directed a nurse anesthetist, QZ means the nurse anesthetist worked alone. Two full-price bills for the same case (one AA, one QZ) is an error.
- 3
Compare the anesthesia bill with the hospital's 0370 line and the operating room times for the same date.
- 4
If you were out of network for the anesthesiologist at an in-network facility, the No Surprises Act limits what you can be billed to your in-network cost sharing.
The full walkthrough for this kind of bill: You got a surgery bill.
For $49, a mediloop specialist reads your itemized bill and EOB, if available, checks every code against the record and available pricing, flags the lines to dispute, and prepares a step-by-step plan with the exact wording to send. It appears in your account within 24 hours after all required documents arrive.
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People also ask
Why do I have an anesthesia charge and a nerve block charge?
A block placed for pain control after surgery can be billed separately when the general or spinal anesthesia was the primary anesthetic. Ask the anesthesia group to confirm that is what happened.
Sources
This page explains a billing code in general terms. It is not a coding, legal or medical opinion about your bill, and the code descriptions are mediloop's own plain-English summaries, not the official CPT descriptors, which are owned by the American Medical Association. Whether a charge was correct depends on the record of your visit and your payer's rules.