How much does Medicare pay for CPT 49324?

Medicare allowed an average of $399.20 per service and paid $314.59 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $1820.81, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 49324?

Insertion of abdominal cavity tube using an endoscope. It was billed 2,275 times to 2,235 Medicare beneficiaries by 142 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 49324 most?

General Surgery, with 1,618 services from 104 clinicians. Next are Vascular Surgery, Physician Assistant, Ambulatory Surgical Center.

CPT 49324

Insertion of abdominal cavity tube using an endoscope

$399.20Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 2,275 services

Providers submitted

$1820.81

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$399.20

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$314.59

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $1820.81 for this code and Medicare allowed $399.20 — 4.6× 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 $314.59 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 2,275
Beneficiaries: 2,235
Providers billing it: 142
Total allowed: $908,180

What Medicare pays for CPT 49324

Across 2,275 services billed by 142 providers to 2,235 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $399.20 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 49324

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
General Surgery	1,618	1,590	$354.89	104
Vascular Surgery	466	458	$378.10	25
Physician Assistant	62	60	$46.99	5
Ambulatory Surgical Center	58	58	$2467.46	4
Nurse Practitioner	42	42	$52.91	2
Orthopedic Surgery	16	16	$307.59	1
General Practice	13	11	$353.63	1

49324 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
Oklahoma	176	$321.75	$270.04	10
Texas	166	$349.99	$280.26	10
California	155	$373.02	$292.91	9
Illinois	147	$559.02	$452.93	9
Florida	134	$329.91	$235.81	5
Arizona	124	$697.55	$550.56	8
North Carolina	104	$338.86	$284.82	8
Indiana	98	$858.46	$711.97	7
Missouri	88	$306.03	$246.83	6
New Jersey	85	$402.50	$284.64	4
Ohio	82	$370.05	$299.27	5
Pennsylvania	75	$373.32	$277.41	4
Kansas	70	$322.66	$278.73	3
South Carolina	61	$347.31	$278.75	4
Maryland	60	$384.88	$280.62	3
Colorado	57	$369.20	$285.58	3
Tennessee	55	$270.60	$233.83	4
Michigan	49	$358.56	$285.33	3
New York	48	$413.04	$283.10	4
Virginia	43	$352.00	$289.92	3
Kentucky	40	$348.32	$284.11	3
Oregon	38	$349.75	$289.15	3
Utah	36	$265.92	$218.26	3
Arkansas	30	$284.07	$278.93	2
Alabama	27	$197.74	$181.01	2
Washington	26	$357.10	$259.60	2
New Hampshire	26	$227.55	$181.80	2
Louisiana	23	$338.76	$283.50	2
Mississippi	23	$371.18	$286.07	2
Georgia	20	$287.39	$253.58	1
Hawaii	20	$365.53	$306.25	1
District of Columbia	14	$341.65	$302.45	1
Nebraska	14	$324.54	$288.31	1
Alaska	13	$463.70	$287.98	1
Massachusetts	13	$367.11	$291.08	1
West Virginia	12	$363.06	$254.99	1
Wisconsin	12	$387.94	$301.86	1
Rhode Island	11	$380.73	$301.71	1

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.