How much does Medicare pay for CPT 84480?

Medicare allowed an average of $13.88 per service and paid $13.88 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $89.92, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 84480?

Thyroid hormone, t3 measurement, total. It was billed 575,710 times to 416,880 Medicare beneficiaries by 1,068 providers in 2024.

Does 84480 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $13.88 in an office setting and $13.47 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 84480 most?

Clinical Laboratory, with 470,363 services from 389 clinicians. Next are Internal Medicine, Family Practice, Endocrinology.

CPT 84480

Thyroid hormone, t3 measurement, total

$13.88Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 575,710 services

Providers submitted

$89.92

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$13.88

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$13.88

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $89.92 for this code and Medicare allowed $13.88 — 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 $13.88 (100%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $13.88
Hospital / facility: $13.47

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. 575,680 services were billed in an office setting and 30 in a facility.

Services: 575,710
Beneficiaries: 416,880
Providers billing it: 1,068
Total allowed: $7,990,855

What Medicare pays for CPT 84480

Across 575,710 services billed by 1,068 providers to 416,880 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $13.88 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 84480

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Clinical Laboratory	470,363	348,904	$13.89	389
Internal Medicine	36,481	23,391	$13.87	187
Family Practice	24,172	15,734	$13.86	148
Endocrinology	23,031	14,616	$13.84	133
Cardiology	7,879	4,165	$13.86	17
Nurse Practitioner	3,891	3,024	$13.65	88
Pathology	3,840	2,915	$13.83	14
Physician Assistant	1,695	1,255	$13.85	41
Hematology-Oncology	1,568	838	$13.88	22
Nephrology	1,003	494	$13.86	3
Rheumatology	453	407	$13.87	7
Urology	371	335	$13.90	2
General Practice	309	238	$13.90	4
Gastroenterology	257	231	$13.86	2
Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology	120	89	$13.90	3

84480 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	122,800	$13.89	$13.90	62
California	81,359	$13.89	$13.90	114
Florida	75,251	$13.89	$13.90	111
New York	62,443	$13.88	$13.90	122
Texas	40,869	$13.88	$13.90	73
North Carolina	34,611	$13.89	$13.90	80
Tennessee	18,145	$13.83	$13.90	42
Arizona	15,151	$13.89	$13.90	10
Ohio	13,866	$13.88	$13.90	19
Alabama	13,632	$13.87	$13.90	15
Georgia	12,694	$13.82	$13.90	58
Illinois	10,886	$13.90	$13.90	36
Kansas	8,802	$13.90	$13.90	12
Massachusetts	8,068	$13.89	$13.90	26
Pennsylvania	7,283	$13.89	$13.90	15
Virginia	7,003	$13.88	$13.90	47
Maryland	6,737	$13.89	$13.90	16
Washington	5,158	$13.88	$13.90	11
Oklahoma	4,012	$13.88	$13.90	8
Michigan	3,359	$13.89	$13.90	18
South Carolina	2,514	$13.84	$13.90	29
Hawaii	2,188	$13.84	$13.90	2
Nevada	1,908	$13.88	$13.90	5
Colorado	1,851	$13.89	$13.90	5
Wisconsin	1,773	$13.74	$13.90	8
Missouri	1,559	$13.80	$13.90	9
New Mexico	1,529	$13.84	$13.90	3
Kentucky	1,369	$13.84	$13.90	10
Louisiana	1,225	$13.87	$13.90	13
Mississippi	1,117	$13.85	$13.90	8
Oregon	1,000	$13.85	$13.90	5
Arkansas	940	$13.80	$13.90	12
Utah	921	$13.86	$13.90	12
Minnesota	649	$13.90	$13.90	8
Indiana	552	$13.83	$13.90	5
West Virginia	391	$13.88	$13.90	1
Puerto Rico	296	$13.87	$13.90	6
Rhode Island	265	$13.86	$13.90	3
District of Columbia	264	$13.90	$13.90	5
Iowa	246	$13.85	$13.90	7
Maine	212	$13.79	$13.90	1
Nebraska	171	$13.70	$13.90	2
South Dakota	115	$13.90	$13.90	2
New Hampshire	113	$13.90	$13.90	2
Connecticut	107	$13.90	$13.90	2
North Dakota	95	$13.90	$13.90	2
Idaho	72	$13.90	$13.90	2
Delaware	66	$13.90	$13.90	2
Wyoming	43	$13.90	$13.90	1
U.S. Virgin Islands	30	$13.90	$13.90	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
84479Thyroid hormone evaluation$6.34
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.