How much does Medicare pay for CPT 49406?

Medicare allowed an average of $178.72 per service and paid $141.41 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $1823.77, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 49406?

Drainage of fluid collection of abdominal cavity by tube using imaging guidance. It was billed 6,067 times to 5,355 Medicare beneficiaries by 373 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 49406 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 3,422 services from 215 clinicians. Next are Interventional Radiology, General Surgery, Physician Assistant.

CPT 49406

Drainage of fluid collection of abdominal cavity by tube using imaging guidance

$178.72Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 6,067 services

Providers submitted

$1823.77

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$178.72

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$141.41

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $1823.77 for this code and Medicare allowed $178.72 — 10.2× 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 $141.41 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 6,067
Beneficiaries: 5,355
Providers billing it: 373
Total allowed: $1,084,294

What Medicare pays for CPT 49406

Across 6,067 services billed by 373 providers to 5,355 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $178.72 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 49406

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	3,422	3,021	$179.30	215
Interventional Radiology	2,393	2,103	$178.48	145
General Surgery	74	71	$196.82	1
Physician Assistant	66	64	$149.48	5
Nurse Practitioner	45	33	$157.62	2
Internal Medicine	26	25	$186.29	2
Interventional Cardiology	15	13	$178.99	1
Undefined Physician type	15	14	$175.49	1
Radiation Oncology	11	11	$175.19	1

49406 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	563	$188.22	$138.88	32
Texas	417	$175.45	$137.97	29
New York	414	$194.30	$137.89	21
Pennsylvania	302	$180.37	$139.01	21
Massachusetts	298	$181.75	$135.37	19
Florida	278	$180.30	$140.42	19
Illinois	264	$186.46	$134.85	16
New Jersey	260	$192.53	$138.07	11
Virginia	185	$176.91	$142.03	12
Wisconsin	183	$164.14	$136.90	11
Ohio	179	$170.77	$135.35	12
Arizona	173	$176.15	$140.72	10
Washington	162	$181.59	$139.00	9
Iowa	157	$158.49	$128.56	9
Nebraska	155	$164.23	$140.50	7
Maryland	149	$184.98	$141.00	10
Georgia	129	$179.24	$142.73	9
Kentucky	126	$173.61	$141.16	9
Indiana	125	$168.51	$139.99	8
Tennessee	121	$166.72	$135.37	8
Oklahoma	111	$169.97	$141.30	7
South Carolina	108	$175.81	$142.66	7
Minnesota	103	$181.85	$144.71	8
Colorado	94	$176.08	$137.79	6
Kansas	94	$169.40	$137.30	4
New Hampshire	89	$172.80	$135.29	4
Utah	84	$168.45	$136.12	6
South Dakota	78	$164.71	$131.74	4
Michigan	68	$180.84	$141.12	5
New Mexico	67	$190.34	$144.01	4
Arkansas	66	$163.13	$132.29	5
West Virginia	61	$180.51	$144.65	3
Nevada	59	$178.61	$141.97	4
Missouri	52	$172.77	$133.30	4
Mississippi	45	$169.88	$137.72	3
North Dakota	41	$162.34	$126.94	3
Oregon	28	$176.74	$141.93	2
North Carolina	28	$152.58	$126.66	2
Vermont	27	$198.26	$145.01	2
District of Columbia	25	$184.93	$147.39	2
Delaware	24	$181.77	$144.70	1
Louisiana	21	$184.28	$140.82	1
Connecticut	16	$200.88	$138.43	1
Montana	14	$176.40	$142.34	1
Idaho	12	$168.02	$120.44	1
Alabama	12	$174.64	$141.60	1

Related codes

49450Replacement of stomach or large bowel tube$270.04
49440Insertion of stomach tube$197.64
49424Injection of contrast through abdominal cavity tube for x-ray study$32.06
49452Replacement of stomach-to-small bowel tube$126.41
49465Contrast injection for x-ray imaging through existing tube in stomach$30.29
49422Removal of abdominal cavity tube$332.37

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.