How much does Medicare pay for CPT 92136?

Medicare allowed an average of $35.52 per service and paid $26.04 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $155.90, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 92136?

Measurement of corneal curvature and depth of eye. It was billed 1,678,333 times to 1,065,618 Medicare beneficiaries by 8,670 providers in 2024.

Does 92136 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $35.80 in an office setting and $29.75 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 92136 most?

Ophthalmology, with 1,628,527 services from 8,201 clinicians. Next are Optometry, Physician Assistant, Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine.

CPT 92136

Measurement of corneal curvature and depth of eye

$35.52Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 1,678,333 services

Providers submitted

$155.90

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$35.52

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$26.04

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $155.90 for this code and Medicare allowed $35.52 — 4.4× 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 $26.04 (73%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $35.80
Hospital / facility: $29.75

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. 1,601,330 services were billed in an office setting and 77,003 in a facility.

Services: 1,678,333
Beneficiaries: 1,065,618
Providers billing it: 8,670
Total allowed: $59,614,388

What Medicare pays for CPT 92136

Across 1,678,333 services billed by 8,670 providers to 1,065,618 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $35.52 per service. That is 1.6 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 92136

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Ophthalmology	1,628,527	1,027,745	$35.65	8,201
Optometry	48,542	36,997	$31.45	453
Physician Assistant	547	428	$24.60	8
Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine	355	164	$22.18	1
Internal Medicine	193	149	$35.30	2
Family Practice	96	67	$34.38	2
Nurse Practitioner	33	32	$22.53	1
General Practice	24	21	$52.57	1
General Surgery	16	15	$43.08	1

92136 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	147,679	$39.66	$26.16	921
Texas	130,737	$33.26	$24.32	680
Florida	110,901	$36.19	$26.58	575
New York	79,591	$38.45	$25.73	561
Pennsylvania	65,897	$38.00	$27.91	381
Illinois	60,840	$36.68	$26.79	330
North Carolina	56,454	$33.85	$25.67	257
Ohio	53,458	$34.62	$26.49	326
Washington	51,211	$31.96	$22.73	204
Virginia	49,142	$38.87	$28.25	226
Tennessee	48,418	$28.87	$22.70	187
Indiana	46,333	$33.45	$25.29	160
Arizona	45,821	$32.28	$23.65	179
Massachusetts	44,944	$38.50	$26.02	259
Georgia	43,938	$35.41	$26.57	230
New Jersey	42,331	$40.10	$27.23	246
Maryland	39,343	$42.58	$29.15	187
Michigan	37,405	$36.21	$27.06	291
South Carolina	36,126	$34.55	$26.57	148
Wisconsin	31,931	$31.45	$23.34	167
Missouri	31,802	$35.52	$26.86	171
Oklahoma	30,666	$31.18	$24.75	102
Iowa	29,515	$27.97	$21.86	75
Kentucky	25,917	$35.06	$27.02	114
Colorado	25,074	$39.58	$27.80	141
Alabama	22,129	$32.61	$26.88	111
Minnesota	21,828	$32.39	$23.57	162
Louisiana	21,769	$33.07	$25.76	128
Kansas	21,566	$34.70	$26.62	75
Arkansas	20,066	$31.86	$25.72	70
Oregon	19,905	$35.60	$25.20	137
Mississippi	18,322	$33.45	$27.25	68
Nebraska	16,805	$33.09	$25.79	55
Utah	15,003	$35.27	$26.53	105
Nevada	14,922	$32.60	$23.31	58
Connecticut	12,879	$38.72	$26.66	111
South Dakota	10,462	$38.10	$28.91	32
Montana	10,296	$35.28	$25.93	32
New Hampshire	10,254	$40.29	$28.32	46
Idaho	9,973	$31.95	$24.69	42
West Virginia	9,880	$31.26	$23.89	41
New Mexico	9,368	$36.99	$26.99	33
Hawaii	8,027	$33.03	$21.89	44
North Dakota	8,014	$34.66	$25.41	23
Rhode Island	6,246	$33.53	$24.08	29
Delaware	5,701	$38.77	$28.42	22
Maine	4,821	$37.53	$26.91	32
Vermont	3,820	$36.12	$25.46	17
Alaska	3,426	$39.29	$23.94	19
District of Columbia	3,403	$42.83	$29.02	30
Wyoming	2,279	$30.85	$22.85	5
Puerto Rico	848	$39.68	$30.12	19
Guam	457	$48.34	$27.96	3
U.S. Virgin Islands	390	$28.98	$19.60	3

Related codes

92134Imaging of retina$39.40
92133Imaging of optic nerve$34.19
92132Imaging of front third of eye$30.37
92145Measurement of corneal pressure$11.44
92100Multiple measurements of eye fluid pressure over an extended time peri$87.51

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.