How much does Medicare pay for CPT 29822?

Medicare allowed an average of $411.36 per service and paid $327.24 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $4543.95, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 29822?

Limited removal of abnormal shoulder joint tissue using endoscope. It was billed 1,648 times to 1,630 Medicare beneficiaries by 96 providers in 2024.

Does 29822 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $517.38 in an office setting and $410.32 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 29822 most?

Orthopedic Surgery, with 842 services from 52 clinicians. Next are Ambulatory Surgical Center, Physician Assistant, Sports Medicine.

CPT 29822

Limited removal of abnormal shoulder joint tissue using endoscope

$411.36Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 1,648 services

Providers submitted

$4543.95

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$411.36

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$327.24

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $4543.95 for this code and Medicare allowed $411.36 — 11.0× 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 $327.24 (80%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $517.38
Hospital / facility: $410.32

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. 16 services were billed in an office setting and 1,632 in a facility.

Services: 1,648
Beneficiaries: 1,630
Providers billing it: 96
Total allowed: $677,921

What Medicare pays for CPT 29822

Across 1,648 services billed by 96 providers to 1,630 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $411.36 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 29822

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Orthopedic Surgery	842	835	$174.20	52
Ambulatory Surgical Center	552	544	$926.42	29
Physician Assistant	153	152	$17.65	9
Sports Medicine	38	36	$221.77	2
Nurse Practitioner	37	37	$24.67	2
Hand Surgery	26	26	$301.02	2

29822 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	395	$490.57	$319.89	18
Ohio	139	$442.88	$388.32	8
Texas	138	$109.38	$69.70	8
Florida	94	$319.45	$261.01	6
Alabama	84	$71.47	$50.83	5
Tennessee	77	$313.02	$264.09	4
Indiana	57	$597.61	$494.22	4
Kansas	55	$198.23	$153.17	3
Idaho	50	$438.71	$381.72	3
Arizona	44	$381.90	$299.84	3
Montana	43	$814.01	$677.64	2
Iowa	42	$876.11	$751.31	2
Oregon	42	$808.66	$616.07	2
Alaska	29	$71.36	$29.18	1
Nevada	29	$491.28	$356.40	2
Kentucky	28	$59.21	$50.76	2
Mississippi	26	$224.33	$202.70	2
South Carolina	23	$171.19	$123.09	2
Minnesota	23	$269.57	$214.54	1
Michigan	22	$142.14	$111.71	2
Colorado	21	$654.89	$609.53	1
Maryland	20	$739.40	$595.36	1
Wyoming	18	$1458.80	$1190.76	1
New Jersey	14	$128.27	$88.33	1
North Carolina	12	$253.42	$214.42	1
Virginia	12	$1398.28	$1190.77	1
Illinois	12	$1041.22	$893.05	1
New York	11	$109.08	$63.07	1
Delaware	11	$72.48	$29.02	1
North Dakota	11	$782.98	$703.63	1
Missouri	11	$234.76	$197.11	1
Georgia	11	$110.81	$65.72	1
West Virginia	11	$323.93	$228.42	1
Connecticut	11	$797.32	$595.37	1
Arkansas	11	$199.85	$155.57	1
New Mexico	11	$269.53	$214.66	1

Related codes

29827Repair of shoulder rotator cuff$1315.10
29848Release of wrist ligament$567.21
29826Shaving of part of shoulder bone and repair of ligament$117.20
29823Removal of extensive shoulder joint tissue$290.14
29824Partial removal of collar bone at shoulder$399.85
29828Release of tendon connecting biceps muscle and shoulder$1244.67
29881Removal of knee cartilage$1040.58
29880Removal of both knee cartilages$1020.13
29879Repair of knee joint$618.02
29876Removal of joint lining from multiple knee joint compartments$605.32

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.