How much does Medicare pay for CPT 92550?

Medicare allowed an average of $22.10 per service and paid $15.90 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $74.44, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 92550?

Test for eardrum and muscle function. It was billed 172,347 times to 165,062 Medicare beneficiaries by 1,934 providers in 2024.

Does 92550 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $22.10 in an office setting and $21.84 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 92550 most?

Audiologist, with 128,445 services from 1,533 clinicians. Next are Otolaryngology, Nurse Practitioner, Physician Assistant.

CPT 92550

Test for eardrum and muscle function

$22.10Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 172,347 services

Providers submitted

$74.44

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$22.10

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$15.90

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $74.44 for this code and Medicare allowed $22.10 — 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 $15.90 (72%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $22.10
Hospital / facility: $21.84

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. 171,082 services were billed in an office setting and 1,265 in a facility.

Services: 172,347
Beneficiaries: 165,062
Providers billing it: 1,934
Total allowed: $3,808,869

What Medicare pays for CPT 92550

Across 172,347 services billed by 1,934 providers to 165,062 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $22.10 per service. 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 92550

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Audiologist	128,445	125,314	$22.05	1,533
Otolaryngology	40,017	36,048	$22.41	343
Nurse Practitioner	1,479	1,418	$18.92	20
Physician Assistant	867	842	$19.18	17
Internal Medicine	491	474	$24.22	5
Family Practice	426	365	$22.38	5
Neurology	405	395	$22.66	6
Speech Language Pathologist	67	64	$21.41	1
General Surgery	62	58	$23.66	1
Ophthalmology	34	34	$20.12	1
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	32	29	$22.02	1
Unknown Supplier/Provider Specialty	22	21	$22.13	1

92550 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	36,355	$23.42	$15.80	271
California	35,209	$23.33	$15.22	275
Florida	17,059	$20.75	$15.43	158
Texas	12,850	$20.90	$15.17	205
New Jersey	10,227	$22.90	$15.53	81
Pennsylvania	7,678	$21.81	$15.57	94
Colorado	4,737	$21.41	$14.65	51
Maryland	4,501	$22.08	$14.92	63
Arizona	3,725	$20.93	$14.87	57
Virginia	2,528	$21.10	$14.86	28
Connecticut	2,360	$22.44	$14.99	30
Oklahoma	2,316	$19.89	$14.82	28
Washington	2,195	$22.05	$14.71	43
Georgia	2,029	$20.43	$14.98	38
Illinois	1,996	$21.22	$15.19	37
Louisiana	1,981	$20.51	$15.38	37
Minnesota	1,958	$21.23	$14.97	48
Michigan	1,906	$20.98	$15.34	35
Ohio	1,726	$20.50	$14.79	32
Tennessee	1,608	$19.85	$14.83	27
North Carolina	1,586	$20.48	$14.88	17
Utah	1,561	$20.70	$14.85	21
Arkansas	1,501	$19.43	$15.13	17
Missouri	1,261	$20.25	$14.64	32
Alabama	1,024	$19.50	$14.89	12
South Carolina	1,003	$20.02	$14.90	22
Massachusetts	983	$22.15	$14.73	22
Idaho	847	$20.21	$15.37	11
Nevada	800	$21.03	$14.96	7
Kansas	691	$20.28	$14.10	21
Nebraska	643	$20.24	$15.04	7
Delaware	552	$21.63	$15.61	8
District of Columbia	543	$23.54	$15.95	8
Rhode Island	489	$20.99	$15.58	7
Oregon	440	$20.77	$14.84	9
Indiana	417	$20.82	$15.64	9
New Hampshire	378	$20.97	$15.56	4
Mississippi	375	$19.78	$14.21	8
Maine	374	$20.73	$14.00	4
Montana	331	$20.71	$14.27	4
Hawaii	316	$22.28	$14.39	6
West Virginia	280	$19.86	$14.76	9
New Mexico	217	$19.78	$14.14	9
Wisconsin	211	$20.69	$14.55	4
Alaska	194	$27.55	$13.37	4
North Dakota	85	$20.89	$13.43	2
Wyoming	82	$21.14	$13.16	3
Kentucky	79	$20.10	$13.96	2
Vermont	53	$21.03	$12.82	2
South Dakota	52	$20.80	$15.00	2
Iowa	23	$20.10	$9.92	2
Puerto Rico	12	$20.98	$14.11	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
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
92587Placement of ear probe for computerized measurement of sound$21.99

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.