How much does Medicare pay for CPT 84466?

Medicare allowed an average of $12.45 per service and paid $12.45 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $59.94, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 84466?

Transferrin (iron binding protein) level. It was billed 331,054 times to 231,580 Medicare beneficiaries by 1,596 providers in 2024.

Does 84466 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $12.45 in an office setting and $12.50 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 84466 most?

Clinical Laboratory, with 211,130 services from 285 clinicians. Next are Pathology, Internal Medicine, Hematology-Oncology.

CPT 84466

Transferrin (iron binding protein) level

$12.45Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 331,054 services

Providers submitted

$59.94

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$12.45

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$12.45

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $59.94 for this code and Medicare allowed $12.45 — 4.8× 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 $12.45 (100%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $12.45
Hospital / facility: $12.50

The facility rate is higher for this code, which is unusual and generally means the service depends on equipment or staffing a hospital carries. 331,009 services were billed in an office setting and 45 in a facility.

Services: 331,054
Beneficiaries: 231,580
Providers billing it: 1,596
Total allowed: $4,121,622

What Medicare pays for CPT 84466

Across 331,054 services billed by 1,596 providers to 231,580 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $12.45 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 84466

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Clinical Laboratory	211,130	154,122	$12.45	285
Pathology	49,627	28,818	$12.48	12
Internal Medicine	24,804	18,011	$12.45	430
Hematology-Oncology	14,906	7,882	$12.44	85
Family Practice	12,091	9,341	$12.40	318
Nurse Practitioner	5,482	4,337	$12.43	198
Nephrology	3,931	2,609	$12.46	70
Physician Assistant	2,539	2,024	$12.37	92
Medical Oncology	2,060	1,187	$12.44	20
Cardiology	1,041	737	$12.50	6
Gastroenterology	884	666	$12.25	31
Endocrinology	816	568	$12.22	12
Obstetrics & Gynecology	702	398	$12.39	2
Rheumatology	244	222	$12.35	11
Geriatric Medicine	207	164	$12.50	3

84466 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	77,116	$12.48	$12.50	83
California	36,568	$12.42	$12.50	47
New York	20,485	$12.48	$12.50	134
New Jersey	19,246	$12.48	$12.50	14
Arizona	18,186	$12.47	$12.50	94
Texas	16,920	$12.46	$12.50	132
North Carolina	13,563	$12.46	$12.50	54
Illinois	13,391	$12.48	$12.50	27
Tennessee	13,277	$12.35	$12.50	252
Pennsylvania	10,065	$12.46	$12.50	14
Georgia	9,438	$12.46	$12.50	31
Oregon	9,326	$12.45	$12.50	34
Massachusetts	8,503	$12.49	$12.50	206
Washington	8,110	$12.41	$12.50	89
Alabama	7,067	$12.36	$12.50	41
Oklahoma	6,289	$12.46	$12.50	6
Maryland	5,192	$12.42	$12.50	8
Virginia	4,952	$12.35	$12.50	24
Ohio	4,253	$12.44	$12.50	13
Minnesota	3,193	$12.38	$12.50	8
Kansas	2,913	$12.44	$12.50	11
Utah	2,888	$12.48	$12.50	3
Michigan	2,880	$12.41	$12.50	51
Colorado	1,884	$12.46	$12.50	6
Indiana	1,738	$12.44	$12.50	20
Missouri	1,651	$12.45	$12.50	25
South Carolina	1,639	$12.42	$12.50	40
Wisconsin	1,470	$12.43	$12.50	6
Nevada	1,418	$12.45	$12.50	9
Kentucky	1,262	$12.46	$12.50	12
Louisiana	1,036	$12.45	$12.50	11
Mississippi	1,031	$12.40	$12.50	27
South Dakota	555	$12.48	$12.50	15
Nebraska	542	$12.40	$12.50	1
West Virginia	506	$12.48	$12.50	5
Wyoming	424	$12.43	$12.50	9
Idaho	362	$12.40	$12.50	10
Iowa	327	$12.42	$12.50	3
North Dakota	301	$12.49	$12.50	5
Hawaii	290	$12.41	$12.50	2
Rhode Island	227	$12.50	$12.50	2
Arkansas	154	$12.45	$12.50	1
New Mexico	115	$12.50	$12.50	2
New Hampshire	102	$12.50	$12.50	2
Connecticut	79	$12.50	$12.50	3
Alaska	53	$12.50	$12.50	1
Maine	33	$12.50	$12.50	1
Puerto Rico	23	$12.34	$12.50	1
Delaware	11	$12.50	$12.50	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
84425Vitamin b-1 (thiamine) level$20.70
84432Thyroglobulin (thyroid related hormone) level$15.72

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.