How much does Medicare pay for CPT 38571?

Medicare allowed an average of $294.23 per service and paid $234.80 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $3138.56, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 38571?

Removal of lymph nodes of both sides of pelvis using an endoscope. It was billed 10,365 times to 10,362 Medicare beneficiaries by 520 providers in 2024.

Does 38571 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $369.82 in an office setting and $293.14 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 38571 most?

Urology, with 7,855 services from 399 clinicians. Next are Physician Assistant, Gynecological Oncology, Nurse Practitioner.

CPT 38571

Removal of lymph nodes of both sides of pelvis using an endoscope

$294.23Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 10,365 services

Providers submitted

$3138.56

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$294.23

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$234.80

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $3138.56 for this code and Medicare allowed $294.23 — 10.7× 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 $234.80 (80%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $369.82
Hospital / facility: $293.14

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. 147 services were billed in an office setting and 10,218 in a facility.

Services: 10,365
Beneficiaries: 10,362
Providers billing it: 520
Total allowed: $3,049,694

What Medicare pays for CPT 38571

Across 10,365 services billed by 520 providers to 10,362 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $294.23 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 38571

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Urology	7,855	7,854	$318.91	399
Physician Assistant	1,477	1,477	$45.90	63
Gynecological Oncology	514	514	$334.47	29
Nurse Practitioner	220	220	$45.82	15
General Surgery	125	123	$273.70	4
Obstetrics & Gynecology	99	99	$293.39	7
Ambulatory Surgical Center	44	44	$5153.53	1
Certified Clinical Nurse Specialist	17	17	$41.92	1
Colorectal Surgery (Proctology)	14	14	$296.44	1

38571 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	1,308	$433.35	$305.87	63
Florida	1,063	$256.36	$189.33	37
New York	761	$327.30	$201.58	33
Texas	686	$268.26	$210.98	32
Ohio	554	$250.58	$204.76	20
Pennsylvania	460	$311.02	$242.10	23
Illinois	405	$316.46	$236.89	18
Washington	364	$252.44	$196.69	20
Tennessee	322	$246.19	$204.40	14
Maryland	310	$309.63	$236.15	15
Minnesota	289	$271.29	$217.71	13
North Carolina	277	$213.27	$169.08	14
Virginia	207	$295.70	$235.07	14
Indiana	195	$295.71	$224.81	14
South Carolina	190	$294.25	$241.80	11
New Jersey	187	$274.62	$201.33	12
Massachusetts	184	$305.78	$222.80	8
Utah	179	$196.10	$151.95	6
Oregon	170	$257.11	$199.69	12
Kansas	167	$287.45	$228.09	10
Georgia	158	$328.98	$255.76	11
Oklahoma	156	$259.30	$206.75	9
Arizona	152	$311.83	$258.87	10
Nebraska	147	$178.76	$143.47	10
Missouri	129	$295.28	$234.96	9
Wisconsin	128	$258.80	$216.21	9
Alabama	126	$163.91	$134.31	4
Colorado	122	$285.03	$226.86	8
Idaho	120	$150.46	$122.16	7
Louisiana	109	$245.33	$190.04	6
District of Columbia	91	$376.46	$259.92	4
New Hampshire	86	$323.47	$262.02	4
Michigan	79	$348.59	$267.88	6
Nevada	73	$207.99	$163.12	5
Iowa	69	$249.53	$211.59	5
Montana	66	$272.89	$204.25	5
Arkansas	64	$267.41	$229.30	5
South Dakota	63	$172.20	$140.35	4
Kentucky	47	$307.60	$260.99	3
Connecticut	40	$345.27	$257.44	3
Vermont	22	$297.65	$260.52	1
Delaware	17	$335.82	$256.98	1
Rhode Island	12	$328.80	$257.97	1
Mississippi	11	$306.64	$281.42	1

Related codes

38525Biopsy or removal of deep lymph nodes of underarm$319.56
38505Needle biopsy or removal of surface lymph nodes$95.48
38570Biopsy and removal of lymph nodes of abdominal cavity$220.94
38500Biopsy or removal of lymph nodes$328.99

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.