How much does Medicare pay for CPT 84442?

Medicare allowed an average of $14.45 per service and paid $14.45 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $76.62, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 84442?

Thyroxine binding globulin (thyroid related protein) level. It was billed 11,192 times to 7,427 Medicare beneficiaries by 50 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 84442 most?

Clinical Laboratory, with 4,839 services from 37 clinicians. Next are Endocrinology, Internal Medicine, Nurse Practitioner.

CPT 84442

Thyroxine binding globulin (thyroid related protein) level

$14.45Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 11,192 services

Providers submitted

$76.62

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$14.45

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$14.45

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $76.62 for this code and Medicare allowed $14.45 — 5.3× 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 $14.45 (100%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 11,192
Beneficiaries: 7,427
Providers billing it: 50
Total allowed: $161,724

What Medicare pays for CPT 84442

Across 11,192 services billed by 50 providers to 7,427 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $14.45 per service. That is 1.5 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 84442

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Clinical Laboratory	4,839	3,724	$14.48	37
Endocrinology	4,628	2,680	$14.41	6
Internal Medicine	1,205	520	$14.48	1
Nurse Practitioner	350	334	$14.48	5
Urology	170	169	$14.48	1

84442 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	4,435	$14.47	$14.48	10
New York	2,793	$14.39	$14.48	9
New Jersey	1,072	$14.46	$14.48	4
Pennsylvania	763	$14.48	$14.48	1
Arizona	440	$14.48	$14.48	2
North Carolina	410	$14.48	$14.48	1
Texas	336	$14.48	$14.48	6
Georgia	266	$14.48	$14.48	1
California	201	$14.48	$14.48	4
Ohio	175	$14.66	$14.48	2
Maryland	108	$14.48	$14.48	1
Massachusetts	48	$14.48	$14.48	2
Illinois	36	$14.48	$14.48	1
Washington	32	$14.48	$14.48	1
Alabama	21	$14.48	$14.48	1
Kansas	16	$14.48	$14.48	1
Nevada	15	$14.48	$14.48	1
Tennessee	13	$14.48	$14.48	1
Utah	12	$14.48	$14.48	1

Related codes

84443Blood test, thyroid stimulating hormone (tsh)$16.44
84439Thyroxine (thyroid chemical)$8.83
84481Thyroid hormone$16.57
84403Testosterone (hormone) level$25.20
84460Liver enzyme (sgpt)$5.15
84436Thyroxine (thyroid chemical)$6.73
84450Liver enzyme (sgot)$4.97
84480Thyroid hormone$13.88
84479Thyroid hormone evaluation$6.34
84402Testosterone (hormone) level$24.87
84466Transferrin (iron binding protein) level$12.45
84425Vitamin b-1 (thiamine) level$20.70

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.