How much does Medicare pay for CPT 36821?

Medicare allowed an average of $674.97 per service and paid $533.78 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $2319.53, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 36821?

Relocation of arm vein with connection to arm artery for hemodialysis. It was billed 10,253 times to 9,952 Medicare beneficiaries by 511 providers in 2024.

Does 36821 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $720.07 in an office setting and $674.11 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 36821 most?

Vascular Surgery, with 5,671 services from 303 clinicians. Next are General Surgery, Ambulatory Surgical Center, Physician Assistant.

CPT 36821

Relocation of arm vein with connection to arm artery for hemodialysis

$674.97Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 10,253 services

Providers submitted

$2319.53

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$674.97

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$533.78

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $2319.53 for this code and Medicare allowed $674.97 — 3.4× 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 $533.78 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $720.07
Hospital / facility: $674.11

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. 191 services were billed in an office setting and 10,062 in a facility.

Services: 10,253
Beneficiaries: 9,952
Providers billing it: 511
Total allowed: $6,920,467

What Medicare pays for CPT 36821

Across 10,253 services billed by 511 providers to 9,952 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $674.97 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 36821

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Vascular Surgery	5,671	5,497	$631.20	303
General Surgery	2,253	2,178	$598.41	104
Ambulatory Surgical Center	1,013	985	$1510.40	32
Physician Assistant	414	407	$87.16	28
Nephrology	254	245	$598.74	9
Nurse Practitioner	228	228	$84.60	15
Cardiac Surgery	149	147	$603.14	8
Thoracic Surgery	99	99	$608.03	5
Orthopedic Surgery	69	64	$541.56	1
Undefined Physician type	34	34	$631.61	2
Internal Medicine	34	34	$614.93	1
General Practice	12	11	$787.22	1
Diagnostic Radiology	12	12	$615.34	1
Interventional Radiology	11	11	$780.53	1

36821 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	1,157	$794.01	$592.37	60
Texas	1,044	$571.44	$457.22	57
New York	610	$841.87	$580.91	21
Florida	511	$630.04	$462.61	29
Illinois	500	$758.16	$567.27	24
Arizona	485	$876.05	$735.20	18
North Carolina	375	$596.44	$496.23	20
Virginia	301	$652.44	$507.03	14
Pennsylvania	301	$591.13	$461.22	19
Washington	279	$461.05	$363.38	17
Georgia	273	$656.38	$516.23	17
Oklahoma	266	$598.58	$499.20	9
Tennessee	249	$649.22	$587.03	10
Alabama	244	$613.97	$551.97	10
Missouri	230	$453.39	$354.77	12
Nevada	228	$948.33	$738.93	6
Indiana	222	$644.89	$559.93	13
Ohio	218	$755.30	$627.72	12
Michigan	204	$853.12	$641.89	10
Kansas	201	$572.03	$488.89	7
South Carolina	193	$779.58	$661.15	7
New Jersey	188	$670.46	$478.35	10
Louisiana	183	$614.58	$498.77	12
Mississippi	161	$477.53	$401.45	5
Maryland	156	$566.59	$418.25	10
Minnesota	144	$972.95	$806.76	6
Massachusetts	126	$647.80	$497.96	8
Iowa	122	$522.44	$459.42	8
Colorado	107	$617.47	$492.57	6
Alaska	106	$556.29	$343.91	6
Wisconsin	105	$814.19	$696.85	6
Kentucky	98	$593.80	$491.15	5
Oregon	76	$615.34	$497.64	5
Connecticut	68	$686.16	$492.59	3
South Dakota	58	$568.30	$493.25	2
Arkansas	54	$550.20	$502.47	3
Guam	48	$600.55	$462.86	1
Nebraska	45	$395.28	$340.14	3
North Dakota	42	$540.59	$473.34	2
Utah	42	$418.51	$327.13	3
Idaho	39	$446.18	$368.99	3
Rhode Island	36	$601.48	$496.34	2
New Mexico	32	$319.79	$229.71	2
Hawaii	29	$579.88	$505.04	2
District of Columbia	20	$682.48	$482.32	1
Wyoming	20	$611.21	$502.95	1
Montana	16	$647.55	$503.96	1
New Hampshire	15	$623.00	$500.08	1
West Virginia	14	$92.07	$46.62	1
Delaware	12	$627.37	$501.90	1

Related codes

36832Revision of hemodialysis graft$901.69
36830Creation of artery-vein connection$761.36

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.