How much does Medicare pay for CPT 83970?

Medicare allowed an average of $40.37 per service and paid $40.37 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $186.24, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 83970?

Parathormone (parathyroid hormone) level. It was billed 1,755,467 times to 1,229,452 Medicare beneficiaries by 3,455 providers in 2024.

Does 83970 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $40.37 in an office setting and $40.45 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 83970 most?

Clinical Laboratory, with 1,454,488 services from 499 clinicians. Next are Nephrology, Internal Medicine, Endocrinology.

CPT 83970

Parathormone (parathyroid hormone) level

$40.37Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 1,755,467 services

Providers submitted

$186.24

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$40.37

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$40.37

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $186.24 for this code and Medicare allowed $40.37 — 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 $40.37 (100%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $40.37
Hospital / facility: $40.45

The facility rate is higher for this code, which is unusual and generally means the service depends on equipment or staffing a hospital carries. 1,755,408 services were billed in an office setting and 59 in a facility.

Services: 1,755,467
Beneficiaries: 1,229,452
Providers billing it: 3,455
Total allowed: $70,868,203

What Medicare pays for CPT 83970

Across 1,755,467 services billed by 3,455 providers to 1,229,452 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $40.37 per service. That is 1.4 services per beneficiary, so this is a code patients typically receive more than once. 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 83970

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Clinical Laboratory	1,454,488	1,017,919	$40.38	499
Nephrology	86,099	55,961	$40.28	427
Internal Medicine	51,254	36,774	$40.32	779
Endocrinology	49,438	33,105	$40.26	397
Family Practice	33,897	25,162	$40.31	583
Pathology	26,431	19,765	$40.31	41
Nurse Practitioner	18,957	15,128	$40.27	323
Rheumatology	14,654	10,814	$40.28	151
Physician Assistant	7,221	5,544	$40.29	121
Cardiology	3,078	1,708	$40.34	5
Hematology-Oncology	2,675	2,165	$40.38	32
General Practice	2,521	1,438	$40.28	8
Urology	1,007	905	$40.29	26
Gastroenterology	598	444	$40.04	4
Neurology	499	422	$40.38	2

83970 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	220,802	$40.39	$40.45	197
Texas	189,680	$40.38	$40.45	245
New Jersey	173,934	$40.42	$40.45	102
Florida	160,833	$40.36	$40.44	299
North Carolina	148,098	$40.41	$40.45	284
Arizona	92,537	$40.38	$40.45	150
New York	75,218	$40.38	$40.45	317
Tennessee	67,465	$40.27	$40.45	237
Ohio	57,372	$40.35	$40.45	139
Georgia	52,752	$40.39	$40.45	136
Alabama	47,865	$40.37	$40.45	36
Illinois	47,429	$40.26	$40.45	90
Kansas	45,520	$40.44	$40.45	40
Massachusetts	42,986	$40.42	$40.45	193
Washington	32,707	$40.36	$40.45	65
Maryland	24,915	$40.39	$40.45	32
Pennsylvania	24,245	$40.41	$40.45	40
Virginia	24,216	$40.32	$40.45	72
Oklahoma	21,269	$40.36	$40.45	17
Wisconsin	21,195	$39.96	$40.45	29
Michigan	20,235	$40.39	$40.44	40
Nevada	19,935	$40.38	$40.45	5
South Carolina	14,002	$40.26	$40.45	85
Oregon	12,671	$40.25	$40.45	48
Minnesota	12,597	$40.20	$40.44	90
Colorado	11,064	$40.34	$40.45	9
Indiana	9,162	$40.32	$40.45	33
Hawaii	8,864	$40.34	$40.45	2
Iowa	8,606	$40.35	$40.45	45
Louisiana	7,698	$40.30	$40.45	67
Mississippi	6,767	$40.09	$40.45	23
Utah	6,671	$40.36	$40.45	38
New Mexico	6,447	$40.27	$40.45	7
North Dakota	5,908	$40.41	$40.45	3
Kentucky	5,544	$40.25	$40.45	27
South Dakota	5,184	$40.38	$40.45	13
Arkansas	4,118	$40.19	$40.45	37
Missouri	4,023	$40.27	$40.45	54
Idaho	3,668	$40.35	$40.45	14
Nebraska	2,849	$40.42	$40.45	3
Rhode Island	2,082	$40.29	$40.45	5
Connecticut	1,613	$40.37	$40.45	22
Maine	1,455	$40.30	$40.45	8
Puerto Rico	1,338	$39.47	$40.37	26
West Virginia	503	$40.17	$40.45	4
U.S. Virgin Islands	457	$40.38	$40.45	3
New Hampshire	333	$40.45	$40.45	10
Alaska	261	$40.02	$40.45	4
District of Columbia	152	$40.22	$40.45	3
Wyoming	150	$40.45	$40.45	5
Delaware	56	$40.45	$40.45	1
AE	16	$40.45	$40.45	1

Related codes

83921Organic acid level$20.73
83993Stool calprotectin (protein) level$19.22
83986Body fluid ph level$3.50
83935Urine osmolality (concentration) measurement$6.67
83945Oxalate level$14.15
83930Blood osmolality (concentration) measurement$6.48
83937Osteocalcin (bone protein) level$29.21
83915Nucleotidase 5' (enzyme) level$10.93
83951Oncoprotein (cancer related gene) measurement$63.03

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.