How much does Medicare pay for CPT 90837?

Medicare allowed an average of $127.42 per service and paid $98.24 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $210.55, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 90837?

Psychotherapy, 1 hour. It was billed 3,792,555 times to 339,308 Medicare beneficiaries by 15,804 providers in 2024.

Does 90837 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $127.71 in an office setting and $117.35 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 90837 most?

Licensed Clinical Social Worker, with 2,001,664 services from 8,724 clinicians. Next are Psychologist, Clinical, Licensed Professional Counselor, Psychiatry.

CPT 90837

Psychotherapy, 1 hour

$127.42Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 3,792,555 services

Providers submitted

$210.55

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$127.42

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$98.24

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $210.55 for this code and Medicare allowed $127.42 — 1.7× 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 $98.24 (77%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $127.71
Hospital / facility: $117.35

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. 3,685,878 services were billed in an office setting and 106,677 in a facility.

Services: 3,792,555
Beneficiaries: 339,308
Providers billing it: 15,804
Total allowed: $483,247,358

What Medicare pays for CPT 90837

Across 3,792,555 services billed by 15,804 providers to 339,308 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $127.42 per service. That is 11.2 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 90837

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Licensed Clinical Social Worker	2,001,664	174,671	$111.74	8,724
Psychologist, Clinical	1,428,078	115,820	$149.80	5,072
Licensed Professional Counselor	130,585	18,119	$110.24	1,000
Psychiatry	122,225	17,745	$145.15	492
Nurse Practitioner	57,234	6,931	$122.68	228
Marriage and Family Therapist	24,851	2,981	$112.49	157
Certified Clinical Nurse Specialist	16,114	1,332	$126.31	55
Physician Assistant	2,103	279	$124.85	11
Family Practice	1,915	278	$141.55	15
Neurology	1,074	159	$150.14	6
Unknown Supplier/Provider Specialty	1,068	119	$143.33	9
Nephrology	1,009	65	$151.10	1
General Surgery	911	102	$132.74	2
Neuropsychiatry	832	42	$161.11	1
Internal Medicine	710	163	$153.80	10

90837 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
California	529,034	$143.75	$106.82	1,489
Florida	403,706	$128.56	$100.12	1,321
New York	270,176	$132.58	$97.63	832
Pennsylvania	200,024	$131.95	$102.88	868
Illinois	193,904	$125.16	$96.42	894
New Jersey	176,416	$128.75	$95.27	636
Massachusetts	172,223	$124.05	$94.26	696
Texas	153,056	$124.47	$98.22	669
Maryland	124,410	$125.63	$94.58	517
North Carolina	107,570	$117.43	$93.79	559
Michigan	106,085	$125.24	$99.02	545
Georgia	97,204	$120.31	$95.26	302
Ohio	94,223	$121.29	$95.90	583
Virginia	82,602	$121.21	$93.99	388
Arizona	77,626	$126.70	$99.88	279
Colorado	63,690	$127.89	$99.11	290
Minnesota	59,860	$122.02	$94.96	411
Washington	56,983	$128.85	$98.78	261
Missouri	51,322	$118.74	$94.41	225
South Carolina	47,701	$117.86	$93.72	248
Kansas	42,636	$115.41	$92.23	216
Connecticut	39,570	$125.37	$95.28	171
New Hampshire	38,770	$125.74	$97.99	150
Wisconsin	38,612	$120.24	$94.71	275
Indiana	37,555	$116.33	$92.75	240
Oklahoma	35,314	$116.80	$93.87	162
Nevada	34,753	$124.53	$98.47	122
Tennessee	34,700	$120.92	$98.49	172
Arkansas	34,510	$112.77	$91.36	199
Vermont	31,103	$118.23	$93.90	123
Oregon	29,995	$122.86	$95.05	175
Delaware	28,027	$119.00	$93.10	130
Montana	27,876	$115.32	$89.95	133
Kentucky	26,845	$113.68	$91.63	179
Louisiana	25,583	$113.50	$91.54	131
Iowa	23,318	$114.79	$91.45	152
New Mexico	21,284	$119.35	$95.56	100
Utah	17,972	$119.33	$95.82	117
Maine	17,538	$114.68	$90.97	77
Mississippi	16,007	$113.82	$92.03	71
Wyoming	15,741	$116.85	$90.91	79
Nebraska	15,626	$117.97	$94.20	95
Alabama	14,199	$117.34	$95.64	109
South Dakota	12,847	$120.74	$94.10	72
Rhode Island	12,329	$121.98	$94.54	59
Idaho	11,396	$116.93	$92.06	64
West Virginia	10,589	$122.41	$97.55	68
Alaska	9,956	$165.96	$94.84	37
District of Columbia	7,387	$135.29	$98.49	30
Hawaii	5,600	$132.97	$103.12	36
North Dakota	5,021	$120.45	$93.14	31
Puerto Rico	562	$142.49	$110.62	7
XX	512	$110.74	$84.98	2
U.S. Virgin Islands	384	$146.99	$114.05	4
AP	292	$108.97	$87.70	1
ZZ	268	$129.96	$115.54	1

Related codes

90834Psychotherapy$88.04
90832Psychotherapy$65.95
90833Psychotherapy$64.86
90836Psychotherapy$88.70
90868Treatment using magnetic field to stimulate nerve cells in brain, subs$183.83
90853Group psychotherapy$23.01
90870Therapy using electrical currents$103.73
90838Psychotherapy$113.05
90847Family psychotherapy$92.01
90839Psychotherapy for crisis$113.12
90846Family psychotherapy without patient$83.43
90867Treatment using magnetic field to stimulate nerve cells in brain, init$285.49

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.