How much does Medicare pay for CPT 00120?

Medicare allowed an average of $184.90 per service and paid $143.86 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $2307.62, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 00120?

Anesthesia for other procedure on external middle and inner ear. It was billed 2,096 times to 1,852 Medicare beneficiaries by 98 providers in 2024.

Does 00120 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $218.63 in an office setting and $182.36 in a facility. The office rate is generally higher because the practice supplies the room, staff and equipment out of that single payment; in a hospital those are billed separately by the facility.

Which specialty bills 00120 most?

Anesthesiology, with 1,194 services from 66 clinicians. Next are Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA), Anesthesiology Assistant, Emergency Medicine.

CPT 00120

Anesthesia for other procedure on external middle and inner ear

$184.90Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 2,096 services

Providers submitted

$2307.62

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$184.90

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$143.86

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $2307.62 for this code and Medicare allowed $184.90 — 12.5× less. That gap is normal and means nothing on its own: Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of what is billed, so the submitted figure describes a hospital chargemaster, not a price anyone paid. Of the allowed amount Medicare paid $143.86 (78%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $218.63
Hospital / facility: $182.36

The office rate is higher because the practice supplies the room, staff and equipment out of that payment. In a hospital the facility bills those separately, so the clinician's share is smaller — the total cost to Medicare is usually higher, not lower. 147 services were billed in an office setting and 1,949 in a facility.

Services: 2,096
Beneficiaries: 1,852
Providers billing it: 98
Total allowed: $387,550

What Medicare pays for CPT 00120

Across 2,096 services billed by 98 providers to 1,852 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $184.90 per service. The allowed amount is the figure that matters: it is what Medicare and the patient together owe, set by the fee schedule and adjusted for local practice costs. What a provider chose to submit has no bearing on it.

Who bills 00120

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Anesthesiology	1,194	1,174	$206.62	66
Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA)	842	618	$157.96	28
Anesthesiology Assistant	48	48	$135.34	3
Emergency Medicine	12	12	$112.08	1

00120 reimbursement by state

Two different numbers. Allowed is what Medicare actually allowed in that state, which includes the local practice-cost adjustment. Standardized strips that geographic adjustment out of the payment, so it is the column to use when comparing states — a difference there reflects how the code was billed, not what it costs to run a practice locally.

State	Services	Allowed	Standardized pmt	Providers
Tennessee	401	$123.85	$102.19	3
Kansas	254	$126.29	$97.86	10
Texas	235	$207.39	$164.60	12
California	180	$323.81	$245.74	8
Florida	167	$216.50	$159.94	11
Massachusetts	144	$253.39	$187.08	10
Missouri	140	$218.95	$168.41	6
Alabama	131	$126.61	$105.35	6
Ohio	73	$169.85	$135.25	5
Michigan	46	$136.90	$105.63	3
Maryland	42	$235.70	$179.12	3
South Carolina	38	$144.37	$108.74	3
Georgia	30	$136.33	$104.90	2
Washington	30	$187.07	$146.00	2
Arizona	29	$195.22	$156.15	2
New York	22	$169.32	$130.16	2
Indiana	18	$222.55	$177.44	1
Iowa	15	$356.08	$298.26	1
Virginia	15	$133.88	$99.91	1
Arkansas	14	$206.44	$186.68	1
Pennsylvania	13	$156.00	$118.61	1
Colorado	13	$123.22	$97.52	1
North Carolina	12	$146.63	$120.86	1
West Virginia	12	$122.71	$97.12	1
Kentucky	11	$126.75	$103.66	1
Mississippi	11	$293.75	$243.48	1

Related codes

00142Anesthesia for lens surgery$94.99
00140Anesthesia for other procedure on eye$123.68
00145Anesthesia for retinal surgery$148.90
00104Anesthesia for electroshock therapy$80.75
00103Anesthesia for procedure on eyelid$139.67
00160Anesthesia for other procedure on nose and sinuses$150.31
00144Anesthesia for procedure on eye for corneal transplant$143.81
00170Anesthesia for other procedure on mouth$148.06

Billing this code is not the same as earning it

An allowed amount is revenue to a practice, not income to a clinician. It funds staff, premises, equipment and supplies before anyone is paid. What clinicians actually earn is published separately by the Department of Labor, and what industry pays them is published separately again by CMS — this site carries both.

What doctors are paid →·Look up a clinician →·All procedure codes →

Where this comes from. CMS Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners, by Provider and Service, 2024. It covers fee-for-service Original Medicare Part B only — not Medicare Advantage, not Medicaid, and not commercial insurance, which typically pays more for the same code.

How it is averaged. CMS publishes one average per provider per code. Every figure here is re-weighted by the number of services, so a clinician who billed the code 4,000 times counts 4,000 times more than one who billed it twice. CMS also suppresses any provider-code pair with fewer than 11 beneficiaries, so low-volume practice is missing from these totals by design.