How much does Medicare pay for CPT 31624?

Medicare allowed an average of $57.02 per service and paid $44.91 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $724.61, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 31624?

Irrigation and suction of lung airways to obtain cells using an endoscope. It was billed 63,645 times to 58,937 Medicare beneficiaries by 2,323 providers in 2024.

Does 31624 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $68.77 in an office setting and $56.98 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 31624 most?

Pulmonary Disease, with 46,407 services from 1,678 clinicians. Next are Critical Care (Intensivists), Internal Medicine, Thoracic Surgery.

CPT 31624

Irrigation and suction of lung airways to obtain cells using an endoscope

$57.02Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 63,645 services

Providers submitted

$724.61

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$57.02

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$44.91

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $724.61 for this code and Medicare allowed $57.02 — 12.7× 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 $44.91 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $68.77
Hospital / facility: $56.98

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. 196 services were billed in an office setting and 63,449 in a facility.

Services: 63,645
Beneficiaries: 58,937
Providers billing it: 2,323
Total allowed: $3,629,038

What Medicare pays for CPT 31624

Across 63,645 services billed by 2,323 providers to 58,937 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $57.02 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 31624

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Pulmonary Disease	46,407	43,123	$54.44	1,678
Critical Care (Intensivists)	8,176	7,532	$59.37	307
Internal Medicine	5,955	5,511	$63.47	216
Thoracic Surgery	1,820	1,632	$49.46	67
Hospitalist	259	220	$76.52	9
Cardiac Surgery	205	201	$33.69	8
General Surgery	173	158	$76.64	9
Ambulatory Surgical Center	111	110	$552.30	5
Physician Assistant	111	79	$106.02	2
Sleep Medicine	107	102	$82.20	6
Diagnostic Radiology	71	50	$22.21	1
Emergency Medicine	48	45	$107.38	4
Anesthesiology	46	27	$132.91	2
Undefined Physician type	46	46	$105.85	3
Nurse Practitioner	44	41	$55.41	2

31624 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	8,163	$54.44	$40.06	238
Texas	4,895	$67.10	$52.88	167
Pennsylvania	3,056	$36.73	$28.48	112
Arizona	2,973	$70.70	$55.29	79
Florida	2,912	$116.69	$90.39	131
Ohio	2,585	$41.11	$33.10	106
Georgia	2,421	$43.89	$34.94	88
Kentucky	2,299	$44.06	$36.48	74
Indiana	2,227	$45.82	$37.70	63
North Carolina	2,152	$49.30	$39.54	69
Tennessee	2,004	$28.38	$23.12	65
Massachusetts	1,751	$45.30	$33.64	64
Missouri	1,695	$49.28	$39.48	67
South Carolina	1,674	$61.97	$49.82	64
Mississippi	1,476	$61.34	$49.24	45
Virginia	1,419	$48.67	$38.20	56
New York	1,343	$94.78	$65.64	69
New Jersey	1,342	$59.74	$43.49	58
Wisconsin	1,338	$42.08	$34.57	51
Illinois	1,316	$97.86	$73.89	53
Michigan	1,189	$67.05	$51.96	61
Washington	1,125	$41.96	$31.07	45
Oklahoma	1,114	$57.53	$45.90	42
Minnesota	938	$51.01	$40.82	38
Colorado	927	$45.76	$35.88	34
Arkansas	839	$60.90	$50.67	32
Maryland	817	$66.27	$50.00	32
Kansas	796	$53.47	$44.04	23
Louisiana	760	$56.56	$45.49	33
Alabama	661	$54.93	$45.79	28
Nevada	610	$52.74	$41.28	24
Iowa	571	$37.52	$31.14	25
Nebraska	514	$53.23	$44.55	29
Delaware	508	$31.16	$24.61	10
Connecticut	431	$31.12	$22.85	16
District of Columbia	339	$32.34	$23.10	7
Oregon	325	$64.87	$49.91	19
West Virginia	294	$106.35	$82.39	15
New Hampshire	262	$46.17	$34.76	12
South Dakota	247	$55.93	$46.07	12
North Dakota	215	$63.91	$49.31	10
Alaska	186	$124.64	$69.06	7
Utah	167	$31.31	$25.06	8
Montana	153	$72.74	$57.98	8
New Mexico	115	$38.91	$31.35	5
Hawaii	112	$49.54	$35.71	6
Idaho	91	$64.59	$55.19	5
Rhode Island	87	$39.28	$28.91	5
Maine	86	$73.57	$57.18	5
Vermont	57	$80.78	$64.78	4
Guam	37	$37.47	$27.80	2
Wyoming	20	$107.40	$86.95	1
Puerto Rico	11	$129.62	$102.00	1

Related codes

31628Biopsy of lobe of lung$77.25
31627Computer-assisted image-guided navigation of lung airways$93.76
31629Needle biopsy of windpipe cartilage$144.37
31645Aspiration of initial secretion of lung airway$83.67
31654Exam of lung airways$64.48
31652Exam of lung airways and sampling of lymph nodes$173.21
31653Exam of lung airways and sampling of lymph nodes$221.80
31622Diagnostic exam of lung airway$108.89
31615Exam of windpipe and lung airways through permanent windpipe opening$145.91
31623Exam of lung airways$15.29
31632Biopsy of lobe of lung$47.23
31625Biopsy of lung airway$72.30

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.