How much does Medicare pay for CPT 89060?

Medicare allowed an average of $9.04 per service and paid $8.31 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $78.23, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 89060?

Crystal identification from tissue or body fluid. It was billed 31,092 times to 24,273 Medicare beneficiaries by 333 providers in 2024.

Does 89060 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $7.29 in an office setting and $17.31 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 89060 most?

Clinical Laboratory, with 19,794 services from 115 clinicians. Next are Pathology, Rheumatology, Allergy/ Immunology.

CPT 89060

Crystal identification from tissue or body fluid

$9.04Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 31,092 services

Providers submitted

$78.23

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$9.04

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$8.31

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $78.23 for this code and Medicare allowed $9.04 — 8.7× 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 $8.31 (92%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $7.29
Hospital / facility: $17.31

The facility rate is higher for this code, which is unusual and generally means the service depends on equipment or staffing a hospital carries. 25,662 services were billed in an office setting and 5,430 in a facility.

Services: 31,092
Beneficiaries: 24,273
Providers billing it: 333
Total allowed: $281,072

What Medicare pays for CPT 89060

Across 31,092 services billed by 333 providers to 24,273 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $9.04 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 89060

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Clinical Laboratory	19,794	17,278	$7.25	115
Pathology	5,973	5,426	$16.05	179
Rheumatology	4,911	1,216	$7.18	30
Allergy/ Immunology	269	231	$18.38	2
Physician Assistant	58	36	$7.18	2
Hematology-Oncology	24	24	$7.18	1
Diagnostic Radiology	23	22	$17.43	1
Hematology	14	14	$14.79	1
Orthopedic Surgery	14	14	$7.18	1
Family Practice	12	12	$7.18	1

89060 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	5,950	$7.99	$7.69	27
New Jersey	3,321	$7.62	$7.44	13
Maryland	3,138	$7.30	$7.26	15
California	2,411	$8.85	$8.07	28
North Carolina	2,093	$8.16	$7.83	7
Texas	1,854	$8.51	$8.01	21
Massachusetts	1,576	$12.65	$9.96	19
New York	1,454	$11.43	$9.30	15
Pennsylvania	1,234	$11.00	$9.45	22
Ohio	1,231	$13.86	$11.26	31
Illinois	843	$10.51	$9.19	9
Georgia	688	$7.40	$7.33	7
Colorado	549	$12.01	$10.10	12
Washington	456	$8.39	$7.82	5
Arizona	421	$8.00	$7.74	4
Alabama	321	$7.19	$7.20	4
Wisconsin	253	$6.80	$7.18	3
Kansas	246	$7.66	$7.44	5
Iowa	229	$12.86	$10.86	6
South Dakota	227	$9.24	$8.38	4
Nevada	224	$10.32	$9.23	2
Virginia	219	$8.15	$7.84	6
Tennessee	192	$8.25	$7.81	4
Minnesota	189	$8.63	$8.01	5
Nebraska	187	$13.66	$10.71	4
Louisiana	177	$11.07	$9.76	8
Oklahoma	177	$7.85	$7.68	4
Michigan	123	$10.66	$9.46	6
South Carolina	123	$14.93	$12.34	6
Utah	117	$8.98	$8.37	3
Missouri	111	$12.85	$10.32	3
Oregon	111	$7.18	$7.18	2
Indiana	103	$13.26	$10.69	5
Delaware	93	$9.83	$8.65	3
Hawaii	89	$7.18	$7.18	2
Kentucky	65	$7.18	$7.18	2
North Dakota	61	$7.03	$7.18	2
New Mexico	55	$7.18	$7.18	1
Maine	52	$7.18	$7.18	2
Connecticut	43	$7.18	$7.18	1
Mississippi	33	$7.18	$7.18	1
Montana	22	$7.18	$7.18	2
District of Columbia	19	$7.18	$7.18	1
Arkansas	12	$7.18	$7.18	1

Related codes

89051Body fluid cell count$5.48
89055White blood cell measure$4.18
89050Body fluid cell count$4.63

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.