How much does Medicare pay for CPT 60500?

Medicare allowed an average of $846.04 per service and paid $670.39 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $3912.73, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 60500?

Removal or exploration of parathyroid glands. It was billed 12,274 times to 12,261 Medicare beneficiaries by 481 providers in 2024.

Does 60500 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $911.84 in an office setting and $844.26 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 60500 most?

General Surgery, with 7,754 services from 261 clinicians. Next are Otolaryngology, Surgical Oncology, Physician Assistant.

CPT 60500

Removal or exploration of parathyroid glands

$846.04Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 12,274 services

Providers submitted

$3912.73

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$846.04

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$670.39

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $3912.73 for this code and Medicare allowed $846.04 — 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 $670.39 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $911.84
Hospital / facility: $844.26

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. 322 services were billed in an office setting and 11,952 in a facility.

Services: 12,274
Beneficiaries: 12,261
Providers billing it: 481
Total allowed: $10,384,295

What Medicare pays for CPT 60500

Across 12,274 services billed by 481 providers to 12,261 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $846.04 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 60500

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
General Surgery	7,754	7,747	$830.88	261
Otolaryngology	1,907	1,904	$941.18	103
Surgical Oncology	1,005	1,005	$893.04	45
Physician Assistant	601	601	$127.91	30
Nurse Practitioner	346	346	$127.83	14
Ambulatory Surgical Center	335	333	$2577.03	15
Critical Care (Intensivists)	92	92	$863.13	1
Endocrinology	78	78	$1042.54	3
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	42	42	$828.33	3
General Practice	42	41	$875.64	2
Thoracic Surgery	32	32	$854.95	1
Certified Clinical Nurse Specialist	15	15	$113.86	1
Family Practice	14	14	$144.40	1
Obstetrics & Gynecology	11	11	$135.37	1

60500 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	2,306	$700.00	$521.29	28
California	1,248	$826.06	$607.71	51
New York	685	$1002.51	$673.64	30
Texas	543	$927.47	$745.51	28
Pennsylvania	476	$940.23	$739.39	17
Illinois	414	$891.61	$645.08	20
Massachusetts	387	$933.71	$698.73	17
Ohio	375	$847.80	$685.60	18
Arizona	366	$994.43	$791.46	13
Wisconsin	362	$742.88	$625.61	15
Michigan	342	$823.83	$634.50	14
North Carolina	341	$727.33	$602.08	13
Minnesota	310	$889.80	$716.60	13
Georgia	272	$1079.78	$854.99	13
New Jersey	270	$825.97	$591.46	15
Colorado	242	$821.64	$624.85	10
Kentucky	212	$783.16	$657.72	11
Virginia	197	$948.35	$752.17	10
Oklahoma	189	$686.38	$556.63	5
Kansas	178	$1146.06	$997.04	11
Tennessee	173	$850.82	$735.38	8
Maryland	170	$995.87	$745.72	8
Indiana	169	$1179.37	$997.94	10
Missouri	154	$743.81	$591.24	7
Washington	148	$924.04	$721.54	9
South Carolina	139	$898.04	$735.58	5
Oregon	137	$683.98	$517.98	7
Connecticut	126	$789.51	$561.25	6
Alabama	123	$693.15	$609.80	6
South Dakota	106	$624.68	$516.69	3
New Hampshire	106	$923.96	$735.52	2
Iowa	97	$635.31	$539.13	7
Utah	93	$1170.49	$967.38	7
Nebraska	92	$696.17	$621.42	6
Maine	91	$671.71	$527.17	3
New Mexico	86	$987.37	$781.00	5
Nevada	85	$613.04	$491.43	5
Louisiana	80	$779.50	$609.87	6
District of Columbia	80	$1044.58	$743.05	3
Mississippi	63	$813.88	$720.13	4
Rhode Island	47	$963.02	$760.19	2
Montana	44	$952.91	$755.79	2
Arkansas	41	$828.96	$750.30	2
Idaho	30	$1658.83	$1402.72	2
North Dakota	30	$902.68	$752.87	2
West Virginia	29	$939.23	$718.50	1
Alaska	20	$1128.89	$762.22	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.