How much does Medicare pay for CPT 31500?

Medicare allowed an average of $136.48 per service and paid $108.44 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $590.37, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 31500?

Emergent insertion of breathing tube into windpipe using an endoscope. It was billed 31,525 times to 30,658 Medicare beneficiaries by 2,015 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 31500 most?

Critical Care (Intensivists), with 8,286 services from 504 clinicians. Next are Pulmonary Disease, Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine.

CPT 31500

Emergent insertion of breathing tube into windpipe using an endoscope

$136.48Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 31,525 services

Providers submitted

$590.37

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$136.48

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$108.44

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $590.37 for this code and Medicare allowed $136.48 — 4.3× 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 $108.44 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 31,525
Beneficiaries: 30,658
Providers billing it: 2,015
Total allowed: $4,302,532

What Medicare pays for CPT 31500

Across 31,525 services billed by 2,015 providers to 30,658 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $136.48 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 31500

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Critical Care (Intensivists)	8,286	8,027	$139.30	504
Pulmonary Disease	7,471	7,226	$135.60	457
Emergency Medicine	5,392	5,325	$139.84	391
Internal Medicine	4,017	3,894	$137.38	248
Nurse Practitioner	1,951	1,910	$115.66	125
Anesthesiology	1,874	1,810	$142.85	126
Physician Assistant	656	632	$119.69	43
Hospitalist	629	610	$135.37	38
Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA)	396	390	$138.47	27
Family Practice	319	319	$134.08	23
General Surgery	146	143	$148.51	10
Neurology	108	105	$138.33	7
Sleep Medicine	53	53	$140.20	4
Undefined Physician type	38	35	$132.92	1
Vascular Surgery	34	29	$133.57	1

31500 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	5,289	$139.45	$107.62	339
Florida	2,938	$141.58	$106.26	189
Texas	2,341	$131.38	$105.39	153
New York	2,271	$149.41	$106.90	140
Maryland	1,229	$139.80	$105.54	76
Illinois	1,154	$145.53	$107.70	75
Pennsylvania	983	$136.29	$106.64	66
New Jersey	939	$141.25	$105.75	57
Mississippi	914	$128.55	$105.79	55
Tennessee	874	$123.59	$103.57	58
Arizona	857	$133.84	$107.02	53
Nevada	838	$131.60	$106.73	47
Missouri	809	$134.56	$108.03	51
Ohio	738	$135.43	$107.31	45
Virginia	727	$131.49	$104.12	48
Oklahoma	720	$127.89	$105.61	44
Massachusetts	697	$139.02	$106.73	47
Indiana	671	$128.04	$108.16	41
Georgia	668	$134.09	$105.57	44
Kentucky	601	$131.14	$106.62	40
Louisiana	578	$133.42	$107.14	35
Arkansas	545	$127.01	$108.37	32
North Carolina	538	$130.45	$107.14	31
Alabama	504	$126.19	$107.02	34
South Carolina	498	$129.79	$104.18	30
Michigan	469	$136.82	$108.10	32
Washington	243	$136.91	$108.10	17
Colorado	238	$134.23	$107.64	18
Connecticut	207	$146.04	$107.92	15
Iowa	176	$123.80	$105.52	12
Nebraska	133	$125.30	$106.07	8
District of Columbia	117	$146.14	$108.72	9
Kansas	117	$127.67	$108.46	8
Wisconsin	116	$131.26	$108.38	8
Oregon	111	$130.31	$104.86	9
West Virginia	92	$142.26	$107.17	6
Maine	78	$133.59	$107.17	5
Delaware	71	$136.30	$107.18	5
New Hampshire	57	$129.38	$102.43	4
South Dakota	55	$132.29	$108.34	4
Alaska	53	$181.45	$108.66	4
Montana	50	$129.25	$102.34	4
Minnesota	45	$124.54	$104.61	4
North Dakota	40	$130.76	$108.38	3
Wyoming	29	$132.55	$108.46	2
Hawaii	26	$138.98	$109.26	2
Idaho	23	$128.56	$105.50	2
New Mexico	19	$134.25	$108.64	1
Utah	16	$132.98	$108.61	1
Puerto Rico	12	$135.21	$108.24	1
AE	11	$141.30	$108.51	1

Related codes

31575Diagnostic exam of voice box$115.61
31579Exam to assess movement of vocal cord flaps$185.10
31525Diagnostic exam of voice box$165.31
31505Diagnostic exam of voice box$73.30
31574Injection of substance to augment voice box$936.87
31571Injection into vocal cords$186.98
31502Change of breathing tube in windpipe$29.63
31541Removal of growth of tongue and/or stripping of vocal cord$330.99
31573Injection of drug into side of voice box$321.45

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.