How much does Medicare pay for CPT 38724?

Medicare allowed an average of $1212.91 per service and paid $966.44 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $5992.63, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 38724?

Removal of lymph nodes, muscle, and tissue of neck. It was billed 4,724 times to 4,675 Medicare beneficiaries by 252 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 38724 most?

Otolaryngology, with 3,980 services from 220 clinicians. Next are General Surgery, Physician Assistant, Maxillofacial Surgery.

CPT 38724

Removal of lymph nodes, muscle, and tissue of neck

$1212.91Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 4,724 services

Providers submitted

$5992.63

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$1212.91

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$966.44

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $5992.63 for this code and Medicare allowed $1212.91 — 4.9× 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 $966.44 (80%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 4,724
Beneficiaries: 4,675
Providers billing it: 252
Total allowed: $5,729,787

What Medicare pays for CPT 38724

Across 4,724 services billed by 252 providers to 4,675 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $1212.91 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 38724

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Otolaryngology	3,980	3,936	$1276.08	220
General Surgery	288	288	$1133.44	5
Physician Assistant	173	172	$179.98	9
Maxillofacial Surgery	88	88	$1198.87	5
Nurse Practitioner	66	64	$174.67	5
Surgical Oncology	66	65	$1400.79	4
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	34	34	$1340.27	2
Endocrinology	17	16	$1382.27	1
Oral Surgery (Dentist only)	12	12	$1240.89	1

38724 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
Florida	903	$1027.44	$800.81	32
California	478	$1263.80	$891.99	25
Texas	369	$1292.51	$957.42	20
New York	192	$1506.27	$1005.32	14
Ohio	190	$1226.50	$980.45	12
North Carolina	187	$1062.75	$824.26	11
Missouri	176	$1439.20	$1128.09	8
Pennsylvania	173	$1365.30	$1007.06	9
Arizona	151	$1160.33	$990.50	8
Massachusetts	144	$1439.33	$1016.47	9
Washington	143	$1038.32	$802.78	7
Minnesota	131	$1218.04	$1065.52	8
Colorado	111	$1061.49	$794.75	7
South Carolina	106	$1189.16	$937.63	6
Maryland	99	$1460.69	$964.52	5
Tennessee	96	$1339.99	$1049.29	6
Kansas	94	$1160.27	$964.68	3
Alabama	91	$1183.75	$996.03	5
Arkansas	89	$1031.01	$829.81	4
Wisconsin	77	$1065.02	$849.17	5
Georgia	70	$1258.31	$921.91	5
Virginia	66	$1353.87	$996.68	5
Kentucky	61	$1046.10	$792.26	3
Oregon	57	$1350.97	$1000.87	3
Oklahoma	55	$1135.00	$949.61	4
Illinois	49	$1496.82	$984.63	2
New Jersey	45	$938.33	$637.19	3
Indiana	41	$1240.86	$1052.10	1
Mississippi	39	$1391.87	$1077.80	3
Michigan	38	$1369.54	$965.05	3
New Hampshire	27	$1242.67	$955.47	2
District of Columbia	26	$1325.64	$939.97	2
Louisiana	23	$1349.12	$1000.62	2
Iowa	22	$1162.35	$918.41	2
Utah	22	$1360.90	$1029.76	2
Montana	16	$1126.02	$886.89	1
Hawaii	15	$1517.68	$848.74	1
Idaho	14	$1200.42	$1114.88	1
Nebraska	13	$1295.72	$872.41	1
North Dakota	13	$1238.37	$1017.96	1
South Dakota	12	$1149.88	$966.62	1

Related codes

38792Injection of radioactive material for x-ray identification of lymph no$27.96

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.