How much does Medicare pay for CPT 60220?

Medicare allowed an average of $578.91 per service and paid $457.92 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $2997.27, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 60220?

Removal of thyroid lobe on side of neck. It was billed 1,461 times to 1,454 Medicare beneficiaries by 88 providers in 2024.

Does 60220 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $641.93 in an office setting and $577.81 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 60220 most?

General Surgery, with 676 services from 40 clinicians. Next are Otolaryngology, Surgical Oncology, Nurse Practitioner.

CPT 60220

Removal of thyroid lobe on side of neck

$578.91Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 1,461 services

Providers submitted

$2997.27

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$578.91

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$457.92

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $2997.27 for this code and Medicare allowed $578.91 — 5.2× 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 $457.92 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $641.93
Hospital / facility: $577.81

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. 25 services were billed in an office setting and 1,436 in a facility.

Services: 1,461
Beneficiaries: 1,454
Providers billing it: 88
Total allowed: $845,788

What Medicare pays for CPT 60220

Across 1,461 services billed by 88 providers to 1,454 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $578.91 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 60220

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
General Surgery	676	672	$540.53	40
Otolaryngology	482	481	$574.91	28
Surgical Oncology	110	110	$611.40	7
Nurse Practitioner	59	58	$78.47	4
Physician Assistant	53	53	$83.52	4
Ambulatory Surgical Center	40	39	$2517.07	3
Endocrinology	22	22	$659.97	1
Critical Care (Intensivists)	19	19	$619.79	1

60220 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	339	$329.92	$240.45	13
New Jersey	106	$424.74	$301.14	6
New York	87	$775.14	$513.88	6
California	85	$673.70	$505.71	5
Massachusetts	81	$681.01	$513.14	5
Texas	69	$599.35	$478.67	5
Oklahoma	62	$467.53	$373.72	3
Minnesota	62	$661.62	$510.18	4
Missouri	52	$469.99	$385.27	4
North Carolina	49	$505.21	$413.53	4
Georgia	38	$1253.02	$968.61	3
Iowa	36	$407.47	$343.32	2
Michigan	35	$533.88	$400.76	2
Arizona	31	$547.58	$430.12	2
Pennsylvania	28	$628.46	$511.85	2
Maryland	28	$696.28	$536.39	2
Mississippi	27	$626.81	$534.70	2
Illinois	26	$664.90	$470.51	2
New Hampshire	25	$571.14	$454.22	2
Oregon	25	$373.27	$267.26	2
Alabama	24	$1508.30	$1321.70	2
Maine	20	$533.10	$450.96	1
Arkansas	18	$635.75	$554.12	1
Indiana	16	$2501.33	$2117.75	1
Virginia	15	$633.40	$518.46	1
Kansas	14	$637.90	$533.68	1
Rhode Island	14	$645.03	$544.26	1
Tennessee	14	$532.84	$505.83	1
Washington	13	$675.24	$508.18	1
Utah	11	$603.54	$468.93	1
South Carolina	11	$634.69	$513.47	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.