How much does Medicare pay for CPT 31541?

Medicare allowed an average of $330.99 per service and paid $258.57 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $1817.00, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 31541?

Removal of growth of tongue and/or stripping of vocal cord using an endoscope with operating microscope or telescope. It was billed 1,271 times to 1,087 Medicare beneficiaries by 69 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 31541 most?

Otolaryngology, with 1,184 services from 63 clinicians. Next are Ambulatory Surgical Center.

CPT 31541

Removal of growth of tongue and/or stripping of vocal cord using an endoscope with operating microscope or telescope

$330.99Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 1,271 services

Providers submitted

$1817.00

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$330.99

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$258.57

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $1817.00 for this code and Medicare allowed $330.99 — 5.5× 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 $258.57 (78%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 1,271
Beneficiaries: 1,087
Providers billing it: 69
Total allowed: $420,688

What Medicare pays for CPT 31541

Across 1,271 services billed by 69 providers to 1,087 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $330.99 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 31541

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Otolaryngology	1,184	1,006	$252.38	63
Ambulatory Surgical Center	87	81	$1400.83	6

31541 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	206	$354.30	$256.17	12
Florida	112	$264.09	$186.55	4
Pennsylvania	111	$244.92	$186.22	6
Illinois	90	$583.08	$436.14	6
Minnesota	89	$254.42	$196.30	2
Arizona	82	$388.41	$313.00	4
Missouri	59	$232.82	$183.99	3
Texas	57	$241.25	$185.95	4
New York	55	$270.71	$182.41	3
South Carolina	44	$549.31	$455.43	2
Massachusetts	41	$277.15	$198.94	2
Maryland	41	$246.49	$185.43	3
North Carolina	41	$237.30	$196.83	2
Wisconsin	35	$236.14	$181.12	2
Arkansas	34	$227.92	$197.98	2
Colorado	32	$707.86	$557.99	2
Mississippi	30	$664.98	$609.19	2
Louisiana	26	$246.53	$187.98	2
Oregon	18	$270.96	$203.78	1
Kansas	16	$247.12	$204.34	1
Michigan	15	$270.88	$191.80	1
Indiana	14	$238.29	$196.80	1
Virginia	12	$249.71	$180.22	1
Ohio	11	$179.73	$139.23	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
31502Change of breathing tube in windpipe$29.63
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.