How much does Medicare pay for CPT 10140?

Medicare allowed an average of $159.34 per service and paid $121.79 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $247.66, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 10140?

Drainage of blood or fluid accumulation. It was billed 13,555 times to 9,815 Medicare beneficiaries by 271 providers in 2024.

Does 10140 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $162.06 in an office setting and $108.56 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 10140 most?

Podiatry, with 11,546 services from 217 clinicians. Next are Vascular Surgery, Dermatology, Physician Assistant.

CPT 10140

Drainage of blood or fluid accumulation

$159.34Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 13,555 services

Providers submitted

$247.66

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$159.34

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$121.79

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $247.66 for this code and Medicare allowed $159.34 — 1.6× 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 $121.79 (76%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $162.06
Hospital / facility: $108.56

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. 12,864 services were billed in an office setting and 691 in a facility.

Services: 13,555
Beneficiaries: 9,815
Providers billing it: 271
Total allowed: $2,159,854

What Medicare pays for CPT 10140

Across 13,555 services billed by 271 providers to 9,815 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $159.34 per service. That is 1.4 services per beneficiary, so this is a code patients typically receive more than once. 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 10140

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Podiatry	11,546	8,574	$164.68	217
Vascular Surgery	616	236	$127.53	3
Dermatology	320	287	$168.37	16
Physician Assistant	229	140	$115.57	6
Oral Surgery (Dentist only)	154	82	$101.90	4
Family Practice	149	86	$112.89	2
Nurse Practitioner	114	96	$117.77	5
General Surgery	99	72	$141.34	5
Emergency Medicine	63	31	$108.01	2
Orthopedic Surgery	46	46	$60.62	2
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	44	34	$153.76	2
Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery	40	33	$160.27	1
Cardiac Surgery	33	20	$72.86	1
Peripheral Vascular Disease	24	21	$143.30	1
Ophthalmology	23	12	$130.08	1

10140 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
Florida	2,924	$149.46	$117.39	50
California	2,183	$166.44	$119.42	37
Pennsylvania	1,901	$163.01	$123.48	19
Maryland	823	$173.69	$123.52	16
Michigan	803	$163.13	$120.20	27
New York	637	$184.87	$123.83	25
Illinois	585	$160.52	$126.78	16
Nevada	552	$152.64	$122.30	3
Texas	461	$151.33	$124.58	8
New Jersey	409	$175.43	$122.87	13
Missouri	336	$157.96	$123.69	3
Arizona	327	$133.01	$103.84	6
Massachusetts	313	$171.69	$116.16	7
Ohio	183	$159.56	$129.04	3
District of Columbia	176	$161.36	$109.34	3
Alabama	139	$146.87	$131.61	2
New Mexico	138	$143.57	$113.53	3
Virginia	104	$154.83	$115.65	4
North Carolina	97	$132.53	$105.29	5
Hawaii	91	$99.01	$59.53	2
South Carolina	67	$143.51	$115.61	3
Connecticut	49	$122.89	$88.39	2
Arkansas	41	$141.92	$111.91	2
Georgia	38	$160.13	$129.87	2
Indiana	36	$116.08	$81.03	2
Oklahoma	35	$175.51	$131.29	2
Louisiana	23	$142.43	$135.08	1
Rhode Island	22	$59.33	$46.41	1
Iowa	20	$160.85	$119.17	1
Colorado	17	$173.06	$129.18	1
Tennessee	14	$134.84	$129.90	1
Mississippi	11	$144.36	$127.55	1

Related codes

10160Aspiration of abscess$112.33
10120Removal of foreign body from tissue$135.43

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.