How much does Medicare pay for CPT 36556?

Medicare allowed an average of $81.86 per service and paid $65.03 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $683.40, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 36556?

Insertion of non-tunneled central venous tube for infusion (5 years or older). It was billed 112,677 times to 106,581 Medicare beneficiaries by 5,715 providers in 2024.

Does 36556 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $236.26 in an office setting and $81.27 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 36556 most?

Anesthesiology, with 37,925 services from 1,720 clinicians. Next are Critical Care (Intensivists), Pulmonary Disease, Nurse Practitioner.

CPT 36556

Insertion of non-tunneled central venous tube for infusion (5 years or older)

$81.86Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 112,677 services

Providers submitted

$683.40

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$81.86

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$65.03

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $683.40 for this code and Medicare allowed $81.86 — 8.3× 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 $65.03 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $236.26
Hospital / facility: $81.27

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. 427 services were billed in an office setting and 112,250 in a facility.

Services: 112,677
Beneficiaries: 106,581
Providers billing it: 5,715
Total allowed: $9,223,739

What Medicare pays for CPT 36556

Across 112,677 services billed by 5,715 providers to 106,581 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $81.86 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 36556

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Anesthesiology	37,925	36,023	$82.30	1,720
Critical Care (Intensivists)	13,883	13,041	$82.90	745
Pulmonary Disease	12,257	11,501	$82.02	664
Nurse Practitioner	9,868	9,416	$69.18	541
Physician Assistant	7,519	7,126	$70.79	370
Internal Medicine	6,686	6,275	$84.56	347
Diagnostic Radiology	6,051	5,826	$81.64	349
Emergency Medicine	4,756	4,618	$83.02	303
Interventional Radiology	3,858	3,616	$82.43	201
General Surgery	2,222	2,100	$83.05	126
Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA)	1,414	1,399	$81.04	79
Vascular Surgery	1,343	1,205	$89.95	58
Hospitalist	1,115	1,071	$81.70	61
Cardiology	1,032	863	$122.76	17
Family Practice	747	716	$79.29	44

36556 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	13,289	$92.34	$69.84	631
Texas	10,487	$78.89	$62.98	484
Florida	9,453	$81.66	$62.12	512
New York	8,497	$88.53	$63.08	384
New Jersey	4,551	$88.08	$65.01	192
Indiana	4,214	$74.53	$63.13	194
Ohio	3,859	$78.39	$62.86	218
Pennsylvania	3,715	$80.88	$63.43	217
Illinois	3,580	$85.11	$63.88	209
Maryland	3,213	$81.58	$61.89	155
Missouri	3,200	$79.02	$63.52	165
Virginia	3,088	$76.68	$60.91	161
Massachusetts	2,835	$83.24	$63.71	166
Tennessee	2,780	$75.34	$63.22	136
Arizona	2,753	$80.11	$64.10	118
Georgia	2,317	$78.18	$61.52	129
Oklahoma	2,285	$73.08	$59.99	93
Arkansas	1,957	$74.61	$64.01	86
North Carolina	1,920	$76.11	$62.18	110
Kentucky	1,853	$76.25	$62.10	104
Michigan	1,734	$81.42	$63.15	105
Washington	1,654	$81.17	$63.45	96
Mississippi	1,595	$75.89	$63.12	81
Nevada	1,578	$77.95	$62.98	82
South Carolina	1,412	$76.80	$62.89	64
Louisiana	1,391	$77.09	$62.45	76
Kansas	1,293	$76.07	$63.90	57
Wisconsin	1,247	$76.04	$64.38	68
Alabama	1,123	$74.46	$63.18	68
Nebraska	1,025	$74.39	$64.34	53
Minnesota	1,002	$111.89	$89.60	55
West Virginia	798	$79.47	$61.40	44
Colorado	739	$79.36	$63.64	42
Oregon	702	$78.45	$63.36	44
Connecticut	615	$84.26	$63.27	39
North Dakota	540	$78.09	$64.11	23
Iowa	530	$75.71	$63.90	32
Montana	385	$79.66	$63.68	20
Hawaii	374	$80.91	$65.22	23
District of Columbia	358	$87.06	$64.33	20
New Mexico	331	$75.72	$59.58	19
Maine	322	$78.10	$62.33	16
Alaska	295	$106.44	$64.47	16
Utah	293	$78.22	$62.39	17
South Dakota	289	$76.13	$63.56	17
Delaware	268	$72.72	$56.43	17
New Hampshire	248	$77.83	$60.93	15
Idaho	238	$74.73	$64.49	15
Vermont	164	$76.33	$63.68	11
Rhode Island	149	$81.80	$63.15	10
Guam	67	$83.93	$64.82	2
Wyoming	43	$84.69	$64.81	2
Puerto Rico	18	$80.80	$64.75	1
ZZ	11	$77.87	$59.11	1

Related codes

36561Insertion of central venous tube$398.30
36558Insertion of tunneled central venous tube for infusion (5 years or old$285.71
36591Collection of blood sample from implanted device$27.38
36589Removal of tunneled central venous tube$161.38
36573Insertion of tube for infusion$94.78
36581Replacement of tunneled central venous tube$744.12
36590Removal of central venous tube$196.77
36514Mechanical separation of plasma from blood$92.43
36593Declotting of central venous tube$38.30
36569Insertion of tube for infusion (5 years or older)$91.24
36500Insertion of tube into vein$91.52
36522Mechanical separation of white blood cells and platelets from blood$90.95

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.