How much does Medicare pay for CPT 29445?

Medicare allowed an average of $91.92 per service and paid $71.29 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $272.51, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 29445?

Application of walking cast covering foot, ankle, and lower leg. It was billed 2,540 times to 459 Medicare beneficiaries by 30 providers in 2024.

Does 29445 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $98.16 in an office setting and $86.67 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 29445 most?

Podiatry, with 1,352 services from 18 clinicians. Next are Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Internal Medicine, General Surgery.

CPT 29445

Application of walking cast covering foot, ankle, and lower leg

$91.92Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 2,540 services

Providers submitted

$272.51

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$91.92

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$71.29

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $272.51 for this code and Medicare allowed $91.92 — 3.0× 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 $71.29 (78%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $98.16
Hospital / facility: $86.67

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. 1,160 services were billed in an office setting and 1,380 in a facility.

Services: 2,540
Beneficiaries: 459
Providers billing it: 30
Total allowed: $233,477

What Medicare pays for CPT 29445

Across 2,540 services billed by 30 providers to 459 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $91.92 per service. That is 5.5 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 29445

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Podiatry	1,352	252	$92.74	18
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation	391	43	$81.15	1
Internal Medicine	214	15	$106.43	1
General Surgery	163	56	$90.71	4
Family Practice	158	23	$92.40	1
Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine	143	27	$93.23	2
Nurse Practitioner	92	31	$87.56	2
Orthopedic Surgery	27	12	$103.99	1

29445 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
Oklahoma	605	$90.10	$83.51	2
Texas	412	$75.35	$67.64	4
Tennessee	364	$103.06	$70.79	4
California	130	$127.09	$84.33	1
Arizona	126	$94.44	$75.44	1
New Jersey	121	$68.63	$51.34	1
Rhode Island	98	$76.90	$64.08	1
Missouri	92	$96.53	$78.93	2
Virginia	86	$94.65	$74.40	1
Maryland	72	$92.99	$77.06	1
Kentucky	69	$82.40	$76.88	2
Idaho	57	$76.62	$62.22	1
South Carolina	54	$93.25	$71.87	1
New York	49	$114.79	$76.08	1
Montana	44	$99.66	$73.61	1
Arkansas	33	$89.42	$74.84	1
District of Columbia	31	$108.61	$73.22	1
Georgia	29	$126.63	$98.58	1
Illinois	27	$103.99	$76.66	1
Connecticut	22	$92.30	$76.76	1
Florida	19	$131.60	$98.96	1

Related codes

29405Application of short leg cast$75.18
29425Application of walking cast covering below knee to toe$72.75

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.