How much does Medicare pay for CPT 84479?

Medicare allowed an average of $6.34 per service and paid $6.34 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $41.21, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 84479?

Thyroid hormone evaluation. It was billed 498,140 times to 381,329 Medicare beneficiaries by 623 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 84479 most?

Clinical Laboratory, with 438,622 services from 283 clinicians. Next are Endocrinology, Internal Medicine, Family Practice.

CPT 84479

Thyroid hormone evaluation

$6.34Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 498,140 services

Providers submitted

$41.21

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$6.34

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$6.34

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $41.21 for this code and Medicare allowed $6.34 — 6.5× 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 $6.34 (100%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 498,140
Beneficiaries: 381,329
Providers billing it: 623
Total allowed: $3,158,208

What Medicare pays for CPT 84479

Across 498,140 services billed by 623 providers to 381,329 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $6.34 per service. That is 1.3 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 84479

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Clinical Laboratory	438,622	340,310	$6.34	283
Endocrinology	14,877	8,821	$6.33	47
Internal Medicine	12,771	8,930	$6.33	82
Family Practice	11,865	8,397	$6.32	77
Pathology	5,107	3,898	$6.33	6
Cardiology	5,067	3,687	$6.32	17
Rheumatology	3,005	2,403	$6.33	19
Hematology-Oncology	1,946	1,080	$6.33	12
Nurse Practitioner	1,362	1,178	$6.34	41
Physician Assistant	1,027	755	$6.33	18
Pulmonary Disease	753	443	$6.33	3
General Practice	446	348	$6.27	4
Medical Oncology	290	217	$6.34	2
Urology	276	235	$6.34	3
Gastroenterology	274	257	$6.34	1

84479 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
New Jersey	102,647	$6.34	$6.34	44
Florida	74,164	$6.34	$6.34	56
Texas	61,062	$6.33	$6.34	61
California	57,085	$6.34	$6.34	50
North Carolina	41,392	$6.34	$6.34	21
New York	33,633	$6.34	$6.34	85
Alabama	20,221	$6.33	$6.34	13
Georgia	18,053	$6.33	$6.34	66
Ohio	16,090	$6.33	$6.34	9
Arizona	12,196	$6.33	$6.34	3
Illinois	12,049	$6.33	$6.34	12
Massachusetts	7,861	$6.33	$6.34	23
Kansas	5,455	$6.34	$6.34	5
Tennessee	4,552	$6.33	$6.34	7
Maryland	3,742	$6.34	$6.34	8
Virginia	3,692	$6.33	$6.34	24
Pennsylvania	3,479	$6.34	$6.34	10
Washington	3,256	$6.34	$6.34	4
Puerto Rico	3,119	$6.32	$6.34	59
Oklahoma	2,800	$6.34	$6.34	5
Louisiana	2,744	$6.33	$6.34	12
Arkansas	2,341	$6.30	$6.34	4
Nevada	2,317	$6.33	$6.34	2
Missouri	1,349	$6.34	$6.34	11
Colorado	1,275	$6.34	$6.34	4
Oregon	331	$6.31	$6.34	2
Hawaii	328	$6.34	$6.34	1
Michigan	238	$6.34	$6.34	6
U.S. Virgin Islands	173	$6.34	$6.34	3
Kentucky	156	$6.34	$6.34	3
South Carolina	100	$6.34	$6.34	2
Delaware	52	$6.34	$6.34	1
Utah	44	$6.34	$6.34	1
Maine	39	$6.34	$6.34	1
Rhode Island	35	$6.34	$6.34	2
West Virginia	30	$6.34	$6.34	1
Mississippi	29	$6.34	$6.34	1
Indiana	11	$6.34	$6.34	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
84402Testosterone (hormone) level$24.87
84466Transferrin (iron binding protein) level$12.45
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.