How much does Medicare pay for CPT 96139?

Medicare allowed an average of $34.56 per service and paid $27.21 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $117.66, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 96139?

Administration of psychological or neuropsychological test by technician, each additional 30 minutes. It was billed 380,342 times to 80,873 Medicare beneficiaries by 1,298 providers in 2024.

Does 96139 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $34.50 in an office setting and $35.26 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 96139 most?

Psychologist, Clinical, with 344,132 services from 1,006 clinicians. Next are Neurology, Psychiatry, Internal Medicine.

CPT 96139

Administration of psychological or neuropsychological test by technician, each additional 30 minutes

$34.56Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 380,342 services

Providers submitted

$117.66

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$34.56

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$27.21

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $117.66 for this code and Medicare allowed $34.56 — 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 $27.21 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $34.50
Hospital / facility: $35.26

The facility rate is higher for this code, which is unusual and generally means the service depends on equipment or staffing a hospital carries. 352,358 services were billed in an office setting and 27,984 in a facility.

Services: 380,342
Beneficiaries: 80,873
Providers billing it: 1,298
Total allowed: $13,144,620

What Medicare pays for CPT 96139

Across 380,342 services billed by 1,298 providers to 80,873 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $34.56 per service. That is 4.7 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 96139

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Psychologist, Clinical	344,132	60,510	$34.46	1,006
Neurology	17,861	11,166	$35.32	158
Psychiatry	7,115	2,089	$37.00	18
Internal Medicine	3,513	3,011	$33.41	37
Neuropsychiatry	1,603	534	$40.73	6
Nurse Practitioner	1,584	821	$27.55	21
Geriatric Medicine	1,057	541	$34.62	4
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation	810	356	$35.45	8
Family Practice	792	761	$35.23	23
Unknown Supplier/Provider Specialty	728	71	$41.19	1
General Practice	312	312	$39.56	4
Anesthesiology	256	202	$31.87	2
Pain Management	241	227	$33.08	4
Emergency Medicine	127	122	$39.58	2
Critical Care (Intensivists)	113	54	$44.22	1

96139 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
Texas	48,671	$33.77	$27.34	166
Florida	37,963	$33.26	$27.42	114
Arizona	28,914	$33.25	$27.43	55
California	27,964	$41.42	$27.17	102
Virginia	21,434	$36.47	$27.28	38
Massachusetts	15,807	$38.67	$27.14	45
Illinois	15,586	$35.22	$27.20	56
North Carolina	12,276	$31.62	$27.04	33
Ohio	11,114	$33.14	$26.90	41
Colorado	9,897	$36.52	$26.90	30
New York	9,878	$38.43	$27.15	64
Minnesota	9,227	$35.65	$27.32	46
Georgia	8,765	$32.60	$26.86	35
Indiana	8,686	$31.59	$26.97	28
Wisconsin	8,175	$32.71	$27.48	42
Pennsylvania	7,985	$33.60	$27.43	52
Michigan	7,551	$32.55	$27.53	31
New Jersey	7,120	$38.96	$27.51	19
Missouri	7,090	$32.54	$27.41	22
Oklahoma	7,030	$31.04	$27.51	14
Nevada	4,772	$33.87	$27.62	13
Washington	4,408	$36.50	$27.41	15
North Dakota	4,299	$34.68	$27.43	11
South Carolina	4,181	$32.03	$27.33	7
Nebraska	4,180	$30.29	$26.96	12
Arkansas	4,022	$29.43	$27.24	12
Maryland	3,996	$38.18	$27.44	22
Oregon	3,872	$34.41	$27.38	13
Kansas	3,559	$30.33	$27.15	9
Louisiana	3,169	$30.96	$26.98	16
Utah	2,984	$30.33	$26.10	7
Kentucky	2,789	$31.19	$27.51	10
Tennessee	2,591	$30.56	$27.32	20
Mississippi	2,377	$29.58	$26.75	6
New Mexico	1,826	$31.97	$26.93	7
Iowa	1,727	$31.56	$27.58	5
Wyoming	1,659	$33.83	$26.94	3
Alabama	1,529	$30.38	$27.59	12
Connecticut	1,390	$38.04	$27.61	6
West Virginia	1,363	$30.90	$26.93	10
Montana	1,291	$34.56	$27.20	6
South Dakota	1,251	$34.07	$27.39	8
Rhode Island	1,127	$35.91	$27.51	8
Alaska	1,038	$37.23	$27.58	3
New Hampshire	973	$33.46	$27.55	6
Vermont	880	$33.96	$27.27	4
Hawaii	583	$39.59	$27.53	3
District of Columbia	547	$40.87	$27.31	3
Idaho	378	$31.37	$27.65	2
Maine	159	$32.17	$27.60	2
ZZ	141	$29.76	$27.57	1
Guam	93	$41.43	$27.64	1
Delaware	55	$32.82	$27.46	2

Related codes

96127Assessment of emotional or behavioral problems$4.47
96133Evaluation of neuropsychological test$92.52
96137Administration of psychological or neuropsychological test$35.38
96132Evaluation of neuropsychological test$121.64
96160Administration and interpretation of patient-focused health risk asses$2.79
96138Administration of psychological or neuropsychological test by technici$33.17
96136Administration of psychological or neuropsychological test$38.12
96116Exam of neurobehavioral status$88.32
96130Evaluation of psychological test$112.99
96131Evaluation of psychological test$82.62
96165Treatment of behavior impacting health in group setting$4.02
96121Exam of neurobehavioral status$71.55

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.