How much does Medicare pay for CPT 31502?

Medicare allowed an average of $29.63 per service and paid $23.50 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $76.57, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 31502?

Change of breathing tube in windpipe. It was billed 2,011 times to 648 Medicare beneficiaries by 34 providers in 2024.

Does 31502 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $29.30 in an office setting and $30.05 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 31502 most?

Family Practice, with 1,102 services from 1 clinicians. Next are Pulmonary Disease, Otolaryngology, Internal Medicine.

CPT 31502

Change of breathing tube in windpipe

$29.63Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 2,011 services

Providers submitted

$76.57

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$29.63

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$23.50

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $76.57 for this code and Medicare allowed $29.63 — 2.6× 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 $23.50 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $29.30
Hospital / facility: $30.05

The facility rate is higher for this code, which is unusual and generally means the service depends on equipment or staffing a hospital carries. 1,128 services were billed in an office setting and 883 in a facility.

Services: 2,011
Beneficiaries: 648
Providers billing it: 34
Total allowed: $59,586

What Medicare pays for CPT 31502

Across 2,011 services billed by 34 providers to 648 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $29.63 per service. That is 3.1 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 31502

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Family Practice	1,102	33	$29.52	1
Pulmonary Disease	366	192	$35.02	9
Otolaryngology	213	148	$19.82	8
Internal Medicine	140	105	$34.78	5
Physician Assistant	93	86	$29.30	5
Critical Care (Intensivists)	31	29	$30.17	2
Nurse Practitioner	26	22	$16.20	2
General Surgery	21	14	$33.47	1
Maxillofacial Surgery	19	19	$18.96	1

31502 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	1,375	$30.83	$26.38	6
Illinois	126	$22.22	$16.11	4
Maryland	98	$25.29	$18.28	6
New York	85	$30.26	$19.70	3
Alabama	63	$26.63	$22.57	2
New Jersey	42	$26.44	$19.93	2
Arkansas	33	$25.34	$22.94	2
District of Columbia	32	$37.53	$26.20	1
Florida	28	$34.11	$26.57	1
Ohio	28	$29.59	$24.12	1
Missouri	25	$32.17	$26.02	1
Georgia	19	$16.98	$13.55	1
Tennessee	17	$30.64	$26.25	1
Michigan	15	$33.89	$26.12	1
Arizona	14	$29.60	$24.06	1
Texas	11	$14.36	$11.46	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
31500Emergent insertion of breathing tube into windpipe$136.48
31505Diagnostic exam of voice box$73.30
31574Injection of substance to augment voice box$936.87
31571Injection into vocal cords$186.98
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.