How much does Medicare pay for CPT 32666?

Medicare allowed an average of $700.26 per service and paid $558.52 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $3982.75, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 32666?

Initial removal of wedge of lung tissue using an endoscope. It was billed 3,947 times to 3,906 Medicare beneficiaries by 225 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 32666 most?

Thoracic Surgery, with 3,142 services from 173 clinicians. Next are Physician Assistant, General Surgery, Cardiac Surgery.

CPT 32666

Initial removal of wedge of lung tissue using an endoscope

$700.26Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 3,947 services

Providers submitted

$3982.75

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$700.26

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$558.52

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $3982.75 for this code and Medicare allowed $700.26 — 5.7× 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 $558.52 (80%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 3,947
Beneficiaries: 3,906
Providers billing it: 225
Total allowed: $2,763,926

What Medicare pays for CPT 32666

Across 3,947 services billed by 225 providers to 3,906 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $700.26 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 32666

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Thoracic Surgery	3,142	3,109	$778.86	173
Physician Assistant	415	409	$109.42	27
General Surgery	201	199	$785.35	12
Cardiac Surgery	113	113	$719.74	7
Nurse Practitioner	36	36	$113.96	3
Cardiology	24	24	$553.90	2
Vascular Surgery	16	16	$923.83	1

32666 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
New York	710	$773.56	$518.82	37
Massachusetts	398	$810.31	$609.94	23
Illinois	374	$705.33	$504.41	19
New Jersey	261	$650.57	$471.66	14
Florida	254	$644.31	$456.84	15
California	247	$702.42	$531.36	13
Virginia	172	$554.71	$424.35	8
Maryland	166	$579.59	$426.73	8
Georgia	132	$703.72	$538.90	8
Texas	121	$675.42	$521.27	7
Minnesota	117	$777.13	$652.26	7
Indiana	103	$464.88	$412.84	5
Pennsylvania	99	$660.03	$541.79	7
Oregon	84	$487.85	$383.23	5
North Carolina	72	$622.66	$521.55	6
Arizona	68	$479.81	$389.89	4
District of Columbia	63	$878.03	$623.61	4
Washington	62	$831.72	$631.62	5
Ohio	60	$615.25	$497.32	4
Missouri	55	$768.59	$605.43	4
South Carolina	43	$684.33	$572.95	3
Alabama	41	$669.39	$599.60	3
Tennessee	39	$736.12	$649.70	2
Connecticut	39	$810.49	$616.42	3
New Hampshire	31	$764.42	$531.92	2
Kansas	26	$719.84	$581.86	2
Colorado	21	$764.09	$606.78	1
Michigan	17	$896.49	$651.43	1
Delaware	17	$872.99	$634.60	1
Vermont	15	$787.75	$673.84	1
Iowa	15	$733.30	$649.91	1
Wisconsin	13	$694.78	$618.62	1
Kentucky	12	$749.51	$589.14	1

Related codes

32674Removal of lymph nodes of chest cavity$171.13
32663Exam of lung with removal of lung lobe using an endoscope$1114.40
32669Removal of segment of lung tissue$1207.57

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.