How much does Medicare pay for CPT 20939?

Medicare allowed an average of $60.92 per service and paid $48.61 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $364.13, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 20939?

Aspiration of bone marrow for spine bone graft. It was billed 9,342 times to 8,973 Medicare beneficiaries by 342 providers in 2024.

Does 20939 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $72.19 in an office setting and $60.91 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 20939 most?

Orthopedic Surgery, with 4,878 services from 168 clinicians. Next are Neurosurgery, Physician Assistant, Neurology.

CPT 20939

Aspiration of bone marrow for spine bone graft

$60.92Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 9,342 services

Providers submitted

$364.13

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$60.92

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$48.61

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $364.13 for this code and Medicare allowed $60.92 — 6.0× 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 $48.61 (80%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $72.19
Hospital / facility: $60.91

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. 11 services were billed in an office setting and 9,331 in a facility.

Services: 9,342
Beneficiaries: 8,973
Providers billing it: 342
Total allowed: $569,115

What Medicare pays for CPT 20939

Across 9,342 services billed by 342 providers to 8,973 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $60.92 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 20939

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Orthopedic Surgery	4,878	4,651	$67.21	168
Neurosurgery	3,397	3,290	$66.49	130
Physician Assistant	914	884	$9.07	38
Neurology	52	50	$57.54	1
Nurse Practitioner	47	44	$8.57	3
Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine	36	36	$62.47	1
General Surgery	18	18	$82.66	1

20939 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
Texas	779	$65.72	$53.58	30
Florida	706	$64.11	$47.84	22
Arizona	628	$54.30	$45.16	19
Michigan	621	$58.68	$44.97	29
California	609	$61.78	$48.41	27
Georgia	377	$65.76	$54.60	11
Virginia	358	$60.20	$48.40	12
Tennessee	314	$59.54	$54.42	10
Pennsylvania	307	$68.30	$54.27	13
Iowa	307	$49.78	$44.78	8
Washington	293	$66.55	$54.24	7
Massachusetts	291	$66.18	$51.99	10
Oregon	275	$50.52	$44.45	9
South Carolina	264	$61.46	$51.91	8
Indiana	250	$44.78	$40.31	8
Louisiana	224	$51.49	$43.12	4
North Carolina	213	$54.63	$47.01	10
Arkansas	198	$64.44	$57.72	5
Colorado	187	$65.49	$54.14	7
Illinois	187	$75.43	$53.97	7
South Dakota	166	$44.06	$39.60	8
New York	148	$74.29	$50.47	9
Utah	143	$61.42	$50.27	4
Minnesota	141	$61.04	$54.27	4
Ohio	134	$67.94	$54.07	6
Nevada	134	$52.32	$43.14	6
Nebraska	126	$38.71	$35.21	5
Alabama	124	$58.61	$54.60	6
Wisconsin	104	$58.76	$54.51	3
Maryland	101	$72.27	$54.20	4
Oklahoma	94	$62.61	$54.20	5
Missouri	76	$66.27	$54.14	4
Wyoming	58	$65.47	$54.16	2
Kentucky	58	$78.50	$68.10	3
Alaska	40	$82.40	$54.44	2
Connecticut	39	$72.81	$54.14	3
Delaware	38	$66.25	$54.12	1
Puerto Rico	36	$64.20	$54.09	1
New Mexico	33	$68.22	$54.04	1
Mississippi	30	$62.17	$54.16	2
Idaho	29	$74.34	$66.33	1
West Virginia	28	$71.86	$55.64	1
Montana	26	$67.80	$54.21	2
New Jersey	20	$70.08	$54.74	1
Kansas	17	$62.12	$54.13	1
New Hampshire	11	$66.18	$54.04	1

Related codes

20985Computer-assisted surgery for muscle and bone procedure$132.15
20937Harvest of bone fragment for spine bone graft$122.40
20931Graft of donor bone to spine$106.13
20902Harvest of graft from large bone$280.05
20900Harvest of graft from small bone$707.38

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.