How much does Medicare pay for CPT 29581?

Medicare allowed an average of $84.27 per service and paid $66.02 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $231.69, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 29581?

Application of vein wound compression bandages on lower leg, ankle, and foot. It was billed 123,719 times to 25,653 Medicare beneficiaries by 898 providers in 2024.

Does 29581 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $92.28 in an office setting and $25.92 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 29581 most?

Podiatry, with 37,785 services from 344 clinicians. Next are Occupational Therapist in Private Practice, Physical Therapist in Private Practice, Nurse Practitioner.

CPT 29581

Application of vein wound compression bandages on lower leg, ankle, and foot

$84.27Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 123,719 services

Providers submitted

$231.69

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$84.27

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$66.02

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $231.69 for this code and Medicare allowed $84.27 — 2.7× 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 $66.02 (78%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $92.28
Hospital / facility: $25.92

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. 108,788 services were billed in an office setting and 14,931 in a facility.

Services: 123,719
Beneficiaries: 25,653
Providers billing it: 898
Total allowed: $10,425,800

What Medicare pays for CPT 29581

Across 123,719 services billed by 898 providers to 25,653 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $84.27 per service. That is 4.8 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 29581

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Podiatry	37,785	10,152	$78.46	344
Occupational Therapist in Private Practice	17,254	1,717	$110.65	45
Physical Therapist in Private Practice	14,280	1,442	$96.04	48
Nurse Practitioner	13,441	2,999	$59.14	138
Vascular Surgery	7,850	1,747	$100.45	56
General Surgery	6,834	1,437	$92.55	54
Physician Assistant	5,078	1,328	$59.40	53
Family Practice	3,884	804	$79.26	23
Internal Medicine	3,831	766	$84.45	24
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	2,303	624	$66.74	13
Infectious Disease	2,224	264	$91.31	8
Emergency Medicine	1,698	487	$48.71	18
General Practice	1,172	212	$91.68	6
Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine	1,034	242	$69.21	9
Dermatology	1,006	393	$83.59	18

29581 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	25,408	$89.93	$61.66	141
Florida	16,272	$92.60	$73.95	82
Texas	10,094	$100.10	$81.18	60
New Jersey	9,691	$78.41	$56.01	47
New York	6,017	$97.14	$66.48	56
Arizona	4,006	$78.90	$63.34	30
Maryland	4,005	$84.96	$65.11	28
Nebraska	3,796	$106.58	$89.75	15
Pennsylvania	2,965	$81.76	$65.92	34
Tennessee	2,753	$61.87	$51.36	30
Kentucky	2,339	$89.52	$74.69	13
South Carolina	2,325	$91.94	$77.83	14
Illinois	2,273	$69.22	$53.91	33
Ohio	2,039	$65.25	$54.89	27
Michigan	1,969	$72.89	$57.95	24
Wyoming	1,934	$94.47	$74.30	3
North Carolina	1,800	$67.43	$54.04	16
Georgia	1,733	$76.37	$62.73	26
Oklahoma	1,619	$80.37	$77.40	7
Wisconsin	1,455	$73.18	$59.01	13
Washington	1,405	$82.91	$61.98	10
Delaware	1,378	$90.66	$70.47	4
Indiana	1,227	$64.34	$53.76	15
Mississippi	1,165	$80.83	$79.72	9
Virginia	1,104	$79.00	$59.08	23
Louisiana	1,020	$66.52	$71.47	10
Maine	995	$31.19	$23.28	10
Arkansas	957	$30.52	$25.34	10
Utah	928	$84.19	$68.99	7
South Dakota	770	$54.55	$42.12	5
Massachusetts	745	$88.42	$63.62	10
Minnesota	700	$65.64	$51.07	8
North Dakota	690	$39.14	$29.36	8
Oregon	675	$77.24	$59.55	12
New Mexico	648	$82.87	$74.10	7
District of Columbia	640	$58.23	$39.72	2
Montana	578	$30.98	$23.90	5
Idaho	520	$82.91	$74.14	2
Nevada	517	$55.06	$43.80	5
Connecticut	511	$89.02	$65.70	4
Kansas	424	$34.93	$28.75	5
Missouri	296	$64.44	$53.74	4
Hawaii	293	$60.16	$43.16	4
New Hampshire	265	$33.02	$25.03	5
West Virginia	238	$51.94	$45.42	4
Colorado	159	$96.83	$72.34	3
Alabama	146	$72.43	$66.41	3
Vermont	111	$23.61	$16.67	2
Rhode Island	91	$49.75	$39.46	2
Puerto Rico	30	$86.39	$66.93	1

Related codes

29540Placement of strapping to ankle or foot$26.57
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.