How much does Medicare pay for CPT 92556?

Medicare allowed an average of $43.60 per service and paid $30.61 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $83.71, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 92556?

Test for ability to detect and repeat spoken words with speech recognition. It was billed 47,665 times to 46,547 Medicare beneficiaries by 1,037 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 92556 most?

Audiologist, with 43,204 services from 911 clinicians. Next are Otolaryngology, Physician Assistant, Nurse Practitioner.

CPT 92556

Test for ability to detect and repeat spoken words with speech recognition

$43.60Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 47,665 services

Providers submitted

$83.71

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$43.60

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$30.61

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $83.71 for this code and Medicare allowed $43.60 — 1.9× 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 $30.61 (70%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 47,665
Beneficiaries: 46,547
Providers billing it: 1,037
Total allowed: $2,078,194

What Medicare pays for CPT 92556

Across 47,665 services billed by 1,037 providers to 46,547 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $43.60 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 92556

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Audiologist	43,204	42,273	$43.42	911
Otolaryngology	4,098	3,926	$45.70	114
Physician Assistant	242	233	$41.13	8
Nurse Practitioner	121	115	$42.02	4

92556 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	4,020	$54.36	$30.27	50
Virginia	3,285	$40.91	$32.06	48
New York	2,454	$44.41	$31.99	48
Massachusetts	2,419	$46.35	$31.20	54
Maryland	2,396	$47.98	$31.21	42
Tennessee	2,383	$39.37	$31.71	39
Colorado	2,232	$45.96	$31.54	46
Texas	2,144	$42.43	$31.99	58
Missouri	1,606	$41.58	$30.18	36
Kansas	1,545	$37.86	$30.92	24
Georgia	1,406	$42.11	$32.08	21
Ohio	1,396	$39.62	$31.27	40
Indiana	1,301	$40.35	$30.38	33
North Carolina	1,284	$39.33	$31.76	46
Pennsylvania	1,182	$42.03	$30.45	29
Florida	1,058	$40.87	$32.05	20
Illinois	993	$42.39	$31.69	27
Minnesota	869	$44.78	$30.80	34
Connecticut	849	$47.86	$31.83	22
Washington	848	$48.44	$30.48	27
New Jersey	837	$49.04	$32.13	16
Arizona	800	$42.99	$30.69	22
Utah	779	$41.28	$30.72	10
Arkansas	737	$37.70	$32.04	18
Oklahoma	722	$38.92	$30.96	18
Delaware	622	$43.81	$31.89	5
Michigan	607	$41.27	$32.01	20
Rhode Island	592	$45.25	$31.71	8
South Carolina	535	$39.80	$32.48	18
Louisiana	505	$39.47	$31.53	13
Wisconsin	484	$41.96	$29.29	19
New Hampshire	475	$46.94	$29.82	9
Nebraska	460	$40.07	$30.15	16
Maine	451	$45.03	$32.02	8
Kentucky	430	$37.25	$31.66	14
New Mexico	376	$40.01	$30.56	8
Vermont	359	$43.67	$28.14	5
Alabama	338	$37.55	$31.21	13
Iowa	287	$40.79	$30.57	12
Mississippi	285	$37.32	$31.97	7
Oregon	265	$44.71	$29.80	11
Nevada	249	$42.60	$30.40	5
Wyoming	217	$44.67	$27.03	4
South Dakota	128	$43.78	$29.56	1
Idaho	109	$40.00	$29.06	4
Alaska	89	$40.30	$34.95	1
District of Columbia	69	$53.40	$31.03	2
Montana	69	$24.69	$31.56	1
West Virginia	62	$43.19	$29.46	2
U.S. Virgin Islands	40	$44.43	$30.98	2
Hawaii	17	$50.86	$26.84	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
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.