How much does Medicare pay for CPT 94729?

Medicare allowed an average of $34.47 per service and paid $26.31 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $112.49, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 94729?

Test to examine how well the lungs exchange gases. It was billed 955,430 times to 903,529 Medicare beneficiaries by 8,994 providers in 2024.

Does 94729 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $51.18 in an office setting and $8.55 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 94729 most?

Pulmonary Disease, with 743,181 services from 6,488 clinicians. Next are Internal Medicine, Critical Care (Intensivists), Nurse Practitioner.

CPT 94729

Test to examine how well the lungs exchange gases

$34.47Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 955,430 services

Providers submitted

$112.49

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$34.47

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$26.31

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $112.49 for this code and Medicare allowed $34.47 — 3.3× 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 $26.31 (76%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $51.18
Hospital / facility: $8.55

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. 580,796 services were billed in an office setting and 374,634 in a facility.

Services: 955,430
Beneficiaries: 903,529
Providers billing it: 8,994
Total allowed: $32,933,672

What Medicare pays for CPT 94729

Across 955,430 services billed by 8,994 providers to 903,529 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $34.47 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 94729

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Pulmonary Disease	743,181	702,153	$34.17	6,488
Internal Medicine	85,978	81,145	$36.26	961
Critical Care (Intensivists)	75,761	72,428	$30.98	839
Nurse Practitioner	17,122	16,227	$42.90	254
Allergy/ Immunology	7,595	7,002	$41.63	104
Physician Assistant	4,854	4,565	$33.83	71
Sleep Medicine	4,782	4,653	$24.51	53
Hospitalist	3,570	3,522	$28.32	48
Cardiology	2,610	2,495	$51.60	45
Family Practice	2,374	2,246	$49.68	53
General Practice	2,151	1,884	$61.62	6
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	840	816	$47.79	9
Emergency Medicine	709	698	$49.55	9
Interventional Cardiology	605	551	$50.59	6
Anesthesiology	411	369	$52.53	2

94729 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
Florida	84,385	$43.67	$34.46	652
New York	80,132	$50.83	$33.80	677
California	74,470	$43.28	$28.72	658
Texas	64,519	$36.86	$29.34	581
Pennsylvania	39,791	$23.42	$18.01	444
Illinois	35,618	$25.56	$19.34	347
New Jersey	35,526	$47.34	$32.57	352
North Carolina	33,786	$36.39	$29.13	282
Ohio	31,366	$17.23	$13.72	364
Virginia	29,641	$38.42	$28.91	241
Michigan	29,081	$24.85	$19.22	330
Georgia	28,845	$42.97	$34.53	318
Maryland	26,340	$45.12	$32.23	171
Massachusetts	25,303	$18.52	$12.98	242
Arizona	24,334	$41.06	$32.04	173
Tennessee	22,728	$33.15	$27.99	231
Indiana	19,486	$21.89	$17.60	206
Missouri	19,282	$20.13	$15.96	205
South Carolina	18,446	$35.27	$28.82	158
Alabama	17,369	$36.05	$31.12	147
Washington	16,566	$32.87	$22.99	184
Minnesota	15,507	$38.49	$28.60	131
Wisconsin	14,061	$19.56	$15.39	154
Kentucky	13,226	$25.80	$21.72	173
Colorado	11,556	$27.49	$20.03	145
Connecticut	10,991	$34.36	$24.26	157
Mississippi	10,938	$33.18	$29.53	84
Iowa	9,744	$17.87	$14.44	79
Kansas	9,598	$27.68	$22.61	78
Arkansas	9,230	$24.54	$21.48	68
Oklahoma	8,976	$20.79	$17.50	90
Louisiana	8,638	$20.42	$17.20	107
Oregon	7,469	$22.82	$16.82	90
Nevada	7,427	$42.22	$32.93	50
Nebraska	6,787	$29.84	$24.37	59
New Hampshire	5,722	$11.90	$8.87	58
Utah	5,504	$17.85	$14.08	53
West Virginia	5,120	$18.95	$15.33	59
Delaware	4,552	$34.57	$26.25	22
Idaho	4,486	$10.49	$7.95	41
New Mexico	4,275	$28.55	$23.93	39
South Dakota	3,381	$11.90	$8.97	25
North Dakota	3,368	$10.20	$7.90	23
Rhode Island	3,094	$35.31	$25.33	34
Montana	2,820	$19.20	$14.31	31
Maine	2,764	$14.64	$11.00	40
District of Columbia	2,307	$41.11	$27.57	35
Vermont	1,872	$12.17	$9.56	20
Puerto Rico	1,696	$54.18	$41.80	39
Alaska	1,562	$24.51	$15.85	18
Hawaii	1,077	$15.58	$11.10	21
Wyoming	361	$10.07	$7.59	5
Guam	249	$8.82	$6.34	2
U.S. Virgin Islands	58	$55.99	$44.37	1

Related codes

94726Test to determine lung volumes$34.10
94727Test to determine lung volumes$35.30
94762Test to measure oxygen level in blood$29.99
94760Test to measure oxygen level in blood$2.51
94728Test to measure resistance of the airways and lungs to differing frequ$40.57
94761Test to measure oxygen level in blood$4.63

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.