How much does Medicare pay for CPT 29540?

Medicare allowed an average of $26.57 per service and paid $20.25 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $85.54, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 29540?

Placement of strapping to ankle or foot. It was billed 98,580 times to 49,460 Medicare beneficiaries by 1,375 providers in 2024.

Does 29540 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $26.62 in an office setting and $12.73 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 29540 most?

Podiatry, with 92,401 services from 1,311 clinicians. Next are Physical Therapist in Private Practice, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Occupational Therapist in Private Practice.

CPT 29540

Placement of strapping to ankle or foot

$26.57Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 98,580 services

Providers submitted

$85.54

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$26.57

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$20.25

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $85.54 for this code and Medicare allowed $26.57 — 3.2× 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 $20.25 (76%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $26.62
Hospital / facility: $12.73

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. 98,195 services were billed in an office setting and 385 in a facility.

Services: 98,580
Beneficiaries: 49,460
Providers billing it: 1,375
Total allowed: $2,619,271

What Medicare pays for CPT 29540

Across 98,580 services billed by 1,375 providers to 49,460 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $26.57 per service. That is 2.0 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 29540

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Podiatry	92,401	48,044	$26.59	1,311
Physical Therapist in Private Practice	3,569	589	$28.60	30
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation	873	73	$18.33	2
Occupational Therapist in Private Practice	775	136	$25.80	3
Orthopedic Surgery	495	339	$27.56	10
Infectious Disease	144	18	$14.88	1
Nurse Practitioner	70	62	$23.26	5
Internal Medicine	67	29	$21.04	2
Physician Assistant	47	34	$22.81	3
Allergy/ Immunology	41	41	$29.90	1
Family Practice	26	26	$26.63	2
Emergency Medicine	22	22	$30.53	2
General Practice	19	17	$27.64	1
Vascular Surgery	16	15	$29.88	1
Pain Management	15	15	$23.75	1

29540 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
California	20,071	$27.54	$19.52	211
Florida	17,927	$24.55	$18.45	171
New York	17,782	$28.58	$19.57	214
Illinois	7,717	$27.49	$20.77	99
New Jersey	5,840	$27.38	$19.33	110
Maryland	3,966	$26.39	$18.85	47
Texas	2,291	$24.30	$18.70	55
Ohio	2,252	$25.26	$19.53	45
Indiana	1,989	$24.63	$19.94	29
Arizona	1,858	$26.04	$20.14	30
Tennessee	1,758	$32.89	$25.51	16
North Carolina	1,600	$24.76	$21.72	27
South Carolina	1,535	$22.16	$17.54	22
Pennsylvania	1,312	$25.40	$18.67	31
Virginia	1,241	$25.74	$19.69	28
Georgia	1,204	$22.09	$17.23	22
Michigan	780	$26.50	$20.06	27
Kentucky	722	$20.10	$15.98	14
Massachusetts	690	$27.45	$19.51	17
Missouri	550	$23.15	$17.57	15
Mississippi	537	$23.27	$19.35	3
Colorado	529	$27.96	$20.19	21
Wisconsin	471	$26.80	$21.69	11
Oregon	359	$23.94	$17.35	10
New Hampshire	352	$28.48	$21.54	7
New Mexico	351	$35.04	$26.31	5
Connecticut	287	$26.52	$18.28	8
Washington	246	$26.87	$19.59	10
Delaware	217	$22.92	$18.16	4
Arkansas	208	$21.73	$18.39	6
Minnesota	198	$23.05	$16.86	4
District of Columbia	181	$27.43	$18.81	2
Utah	168	$26.85	$19.07	5
Nevada	155	$21.97	$17.97	7
Iowa	149	$26.30	$20.46	4
Alabama	142	$23.19	$19.44	5
Kansas	140	$24.55	$19.19	3
Nebraska	137	$22.48	$17.61	4
Louisiana	128	$17.93	$13.42	3
Oklahoma	106	$21.24	$16.21	6
Hawaii	76	$28.63	$21.40	2
West Virginia	73	$20.73	$16.96	3
Maine	67	$22.31	$15.99	2
Wyoming	65	$26.10	$16.38	2
Idaho	60	$23.44	$18.19	3
Montana	26	$33.85	$22.15	1
Vermont	20	$36.57	$24.57	1
Puerto Rico	17	$26.66	$21.18	1
Rhode Island	16	$21.12	$16.74	1
South Dakota	14	$25.96	$16.55	1

Related codes

29581Application of vein wound compression bandages on lower leg$84.27
29580Strapping, unna boot$59.18
29550Placement of strapping to toes$15.55
29520Placement of strapping to hip$34.88
29530Placement of strapping to knee$29.09
29515Application of short leg splint from calf to foot$62.72
29584Application of vein wound compression bandages on upper arm$71.17

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.