How much does Medicare pay for CPT 29848?

Medicare allowed an average of $567.21 per service and paid $447.12 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $4540.44, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 29848?

Release of wrist ligament using an endoscope. It was billed 59,553 times to 51,109 Medicare beneficiaries by 1,408 providers in 2024.

Does 29848 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $484.29 in an office setting and $569.54 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 29848 most?

Ambulatory Surgical Center, with 23,050 services from 442 clinicians. Next are Hand Surgery, Orthopedic Surgery, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

CPT 29848

Release of wrist ligament using an endoscope

$567.21Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 59,553 services

Providers submitted

$4540.44

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$567.21

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$447.12

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $4540.44 for this code and Medicare allowed $567.21 — 8.0× 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 $447.12 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $484.29
Hospital / facility: $569.54

The facility rate is higher for this code, which is unusual and generally means the service depends on equipment or staffing a hospital carries. 1,624 services were billed in an office setting and 57,929 in a facility.

Services: 59,553
Beneficiaries: 51,109
Providers billing it: 1,408
Total allowed: $33,779,057

What Medicare pays for CPT 29848

Across 59,553 services billed by 1,408 providers to 51,109 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $567.21 per service. That is 1.2 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 29848

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Ambulatory Surgical Center	23,050	19,365	$721.67	442
Hand Surgery	18,442	16,087	$473.28	432
Orthopedic Surgery	15,932	13,806	$467.08	465
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	1,760	1,531	$451.93	54
General Surgery	293	251	$486.09	11
Sports Medicine	49	46	$477.45	2
Neurosurgery	27	23	$512.51	2

29848 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
Florida	6,554	$580.27	$465.92	126
Texas	4,315	$519.69	$423.74	120
New York	3,871	$608.61	$453.71	96
Pennsylvania	3,430	$521.97	$416.52	73
California	3,266	$684.59	$458.12	93
Maryland	3,123	$604.89	$470.65	54
New Jersey	2,281	$651.17	$482.50	50
Virginia	2,149	$570.67	$470.11	37
Washington	2,076	$598.44	$460.11	58
Georgia	1,978	$502.95	$417.38	49
Illinois	1,829	$579.70	$448.85	38
Massachusetts	1,683	$562.42	$422.57	39
Michigan	1,527	$585.52	$480.89	35
Ohio	1,498	$536.25	$447.98	44
Mississippi	1,192	$538.37	$482.80	13
Arizona	1,170	$582.03	$464.37	33
Indiana	1,119	$530.67	$449.32	27
North Carolina	1,068	$547.87	$461.80	34
Oregon	1,060	$623.87	$478.63	18
Tennessee	1,029	$501.63	$440.13	26
Colorado	1,015	$577.39	$458.19	24
Connecticut	956	$631.33	$470.45	31
Kansas	954	$525.12	$440.18	17
Utah	888	$537.15	$440.30	22
Oklahoma	816	$461.92	$395.33	19
Missouri	755	$540.34	$451.53	24
South Carolina	752	$480.92	$405.94	17
Minnesota	674	$595.21	$474.45	24
Nevada	673	$538.94	$432.53	15
Louisiana	546	$495.60	$432.84	10
Nebraska	545	$517.22	$446.30	11
Wisconsin	530	$519.73	$436.08	13
Kentucky	484	$478.30	$410.68	13
Iowa	418	$530.65	$467.69	11
Alabama	375	$497.55	$452.82	16
Alaska	342	$684.92	$477.14	9
New Mexico	306	$522.19	$436.38	7
Idaho	299	$451.38	$387.62	9
Arkansas	248	$420.25	$377.24	7
Montana	238	$570.16	$467.97	7
New Hampshire	228	$565.17	$451.35	5
North Dakota	203	$475.43	$382.34	4
South Dakota	202	$497.66	$409.00	4
Wyoming	182	$601.89	$490.40	6
Delaware	160	$589.07	$483.28	4
Rhode Island	157	$548.46	$436.59	5
Hawaii	122	$498.50	$377.62	4
Vermont	109	$468.05	$390.90	2
Guam	86	$503.02	$376.74	2
Maine	30	$730.08	$588.57	1
District of Columbia	27	$573.02	$365.07	1
West Virginia	15	$490.26	$396.22	1

Related codes

29827Repair of shoulder rotator cuff$1315.10
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
29822Limited removal of abnormal shoulder joint tissue$411.36

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.