How much does Medicare pay for CPT 97033?

Medicare allowed an average of $13.40 per service and paid $10.29 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $54.00, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 97033?

Application of medication using electrical current, each 15 minutes. It was billed 9,853 times to 2,667 Medicare beneficiaries by 131 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 97033 most?

Physical Therapist in Private Practice, with 7,492 services from 98 clinicians. Next are Occupational Therapist in Private Practice, Family Practice, Podiatry.

CPT 97033

Application of medication using electrical current, each 15 minutes

$13.40Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 9,853 services

Providers submitted

$54.00

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$13.40

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$10.29

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $54.00 for this code and Medicare allowed $13.40 — 4.0× 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 $10.29 (77%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 9,853
Beneficiaries: 2,667
Providers billing it: 131
Total allowed: $132,030

What Medicare pays for CPT 97033

Across 9,853 services billed by 131 providers to 2,667 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $13.40 per service. That is 3.7 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 97033

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Physical Therapist in Private Practice	7,492	2,001	$13.18	98
Occupational Therapist in Private Practice	1,478	400	$13.57	21
Family Practice	309	14	$14.51	1
Podiatry	240	38	$13.75	2
Orthopedic Surgery	218	125	$15.84	5
Hand Surgery	63	39	$16.57	2
Pain Management	40	37	$19.10	1
Interventional Pain Management	13	13	$17.54	1

97033 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	3,229	$13.96	$10.69	29
Alabama	1,690	$12.37	$10.18	30
Missouri	886	$13.31	$10.71	8
Georgia	787	$13.20	$10.26	12
Nebraska	719	$12.97	$10.21	12
Iowa	705	$12.73	$10.03	8
California	556	$14.96	$10.83	4
Colorado	273	$13.96	$10.38	3
Michigan	214	$13.54	$10.72	6
North Dakota	200	$13.72	$10.55	2
Virginia	147	$13.27	$10.26	3
South Dakota	134	$13.16	$10.70	4
Kansas	86	$13.07	$10.51	2
Tennessee	47	$12.43	$10.24	2
Ohio	36	$12.07	$9.98	1
Arkansas	31	$11.34	$7.72	1
West Virginia	30	$13.37	$10.35	1
North Carolina	29	$13.88	$9.65	1
District of Columbia	29	$15.04	$10.74	1
Pennsylvania	25	$13.88	$10.57	1

Related codes

97016Application of blood vessel compression device$8.54
97035Application of ultrasound$10.55
97032Application of electrical stimulation$11.47
97012Application of mechanical traction$10.73
97018Application of hot wax bath$4.04
97022Application of whirlpool therapy$11.83
97026Application of low energy heat$4.88
97024Application of heat wave therapy$4.77
97028Application of ultraviolet light$6.47
97034Application of hot and cold baths$10.76

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.