How much does Medicare pay for CPT 92520?

Medicare allowed an average of $84.89 per service and paid $66.40 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $285.18, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 92520?

Study of voice box function. It was billed 6,822 times to 5,886 Medicare beneficiaries by 166 providers in 2024.

Does 92520 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $85.95 in an office setting and $32.70 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 92520 most?

Speech Language Pathologist, with 4,855 services from 120 clinicians. Next are Otolaryngology, Oral Surgery (Dentist only), Dentist.

CPT 92520

Study of voice box function

$84.89Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 6,822 services

Providers submitted

$285.18

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$84.89

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$66.40

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $285.18 for this code and Medicare allowed $84.89 — 3.4× 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 $66.40 (78%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $85.95
Hospital / facility: $32.70

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. 6,686 services were billed in an office setting and 136 in a facility.

Services: 6,822
Beneficiaries: 5,886
Providers billing it: 166
Total allowed: $579,120

What Medicare pays for CPT 92520

Across 6,822 services billed by 166 providers to 5,886 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $84.89 per service. That is 1.2 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 92520

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Speech Language Pathologist	4,855	4,264	$85.59	120
Otolaryngology	1,473	1,139	$83.04	39
Oral Surgery (Dentist only)	183	183	$81.39	2
Dentist	132	132	$78.64	2
Psychiatry	107	106	$86.09	1
Undefined Physician type	38	28	$91.98	1
Pulmonary Disease	34	34	$95.92	1

92520 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 York	1,239	$97.53	$66.97	26
Texas	954	$81.98	$67.83	14
Florida	872	$80.48	$67.33	30
California	459	$99.60	$67.06	11
Maryland	451	$78.08	$67.71	11
Nevada	352	$84.07	$67.34	4
Massachusetts	314	$98.59	$67.01	4
Pennsylvania	222	$60.11	$49.05	5
Colorado	210	$90.54	$67.92	5
Michigan	174	$59.25	$65.09	3
Arizona	151	$80.17	$67.36	2
Georgia	151	$87.30	$64.60	4
Missouri	148	$83.58	$67.96	3
Kansas	127	$58.19	$67.45	5
Kentucky	123	$56.63	$67.12	4
Nebraska	112	$81.83	$66.69	1
North Carolina	102	$84.31	$67.25	4
Washington	95	$80.85	$63.93	5
Indiana	82	$80.67	$66.78	3
Oregon	65	$89.33	$68.03	3
Idaho	58	$79.89	$68.21	2
Ohio	41	$72.30	$65.41	2
Delaware	37	$98.24	$65.07	1
Connecticut	37	$89.70	$63.30	2
Utah	36	$80.69	$66.98	2
New Jersey	34	$95.92	$67.86	1
Puerto Rico	30	$91.78	$68.38	1
Hawaii	26	$94.18	$63.14	1
West Virginia	23	$81.84	$68.59	1
Virginia	21	$84.46	$68.21	1
Iowa	20	$80.21	$68.53	1
Wisconsin	19	$82.69	$63.64	1
Alaska	13	$81.48	$68.47	1
Minnesota	13	$87.05	$64.27	1
Illinois	11	$82.50	$68.13	1

Related codes

92557Comprehensive hearing and speech recognition test$36.00
92567Test to assess middle ear function$15.98
92507Treatment of speech$72.06
92504Exam of ear using a microscope$26.45
92526Treatment of swallowing and feeding disorder$84.14
92550Test for eardrum and muscle function$22.10
92588Placement of ear probe for computerized measurement of repeated sounds$33.35
92552Test for hearing various pitches$37.66
92540Evaluation and testing for balance$103.83
92556Test for ability to detect and repeat spoken words$43.60
92537Test to assess balance during warm and cool irrigation in both ears$38.90
92546Test for abnormal eye movement$131.13

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.