How much does Medicare pay for CPT 99448?

Medicare allowed an average of $50.55 per service and paid $38.54 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $150.46, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 99448?

Telephone or internet assessment with verbal and written report by consulting physician, 21-30 minutes. It was billed 5,305 times to 3,805 Medicare beneficiaries by 123 providers in 2024.

Does 99448 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $49.60 in an office setting and $51.47 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 99448 most?

Nurse Practitioner, with 1,018 services from 14 clinicians. Next are Internal Medicine, Neurology, Pulmonary Disease.

CPT 99448

Telephone or internet assessment with verbal and written report by consulting physician, 21-30 minutes

$50.55Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 5,305 services

Providers submitted

$150.46

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$50.55

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$38.54

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $150.46 for this code and Medicare allowed $50.55 — 3.0× 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 $38.54 (76%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $49.60
Hospital / facility: $51.47

The facility rate is higher for this code, which is unusual and generally means the service depends on equipment or staffing a hospital carries. 2,628 services were billed in an office setting and 2,677 in a facility.

Services: 5,305
Beneficiaries: 3,805
Providers billing it: 123
Total allowed: $268,168

What Medicare pays for CPT 99448

Across 5,305 services billed by 123 providers to 3,805 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $50.55 per service. That is 1.4 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 99448

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Nurse Practitioner	1,018	586	$43.77	14
Internal Medicine	1,017	572	$50.57	4
Neurology	998	994	$53.25	43
Pulmonary Disease	665	286	$51.35	2
Physician Assistant	233	197	$49.78	5
Psychiatry	183	170	$53.18	5
Infectious Disease	179	122	$51.97	6
Neurosurgery	146	145	$53.29	8
Diagnostic Radiology	121	120	$51.85	4
Cardiology	113	104	$54.84	4
Family Practice	96	41	$50.32	2
Endocrinology	87	84	$56.63	4
Hematology-Oncology	63	62	$58.00	4
Nephrology	61	56	$53.18	3
Obstetrics & Gynecology	61	40	$49.47	1

99448 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
North Carolina	1,716	$47.02	$37.44	9
Texas	858	$51.57	$40.02	9
New York	385	$54.16	$36.47	10
California	343	$55.79	$38.33	18
Georgia	193	$52.58	$41.47	6
Tennessee	162	$44.79	$34.86	4
Maryland	160	$54.76	$39.17	4
Ohio	131	$50.77	$38.04	6
Michigan	127	$52.98	$41.27	2
New Jersey	117	$52.90	$36.43	4
Pennsylvania	112	$52.32	$41.61	7
Louisiana	111	$49.27	$39.82	3
Wisconsin	108	$50.73	$40.97	3
Virginia	100	$53.55	$39.23	6
Florida	92	$53.08	$38.97	5
Illinois	85	$51.66	$41.89	3
Arizona	82	$51.60	$38.47	2
Washington	65	$51.71	$39.95	4
District of Columbia	58	$57.44	$40.73	2
Massachusetts	56	$54.45	$40.05	3
Connecticut	54	$47.38	$35.36	2
Colorado	47	$50.66	$33.21	3
New Mexico	38	$47.34	$35.29	2
Oregon	33	$51.93	$40.39	2
Minnesota	24	$51.42	$41.73	1
Idaho	19	$49.74	$41.76	1
Mississippi	15	$49.62	$41.76	1
Missouri	14	$50.03	$41.61	1

Related codes

99490Chronic care management services$59.70
99439Chronic care management services for two or more chronic conditions$46.13
99497Advance care planning$73.95
99457Management using the results of remote vital sign monitoring per calen$48.61
99458Management using the results of remote vital sign monitoring per calen$39.11
99454Remote monitoring of physiologic parameters$47.97
99489Complex chronic care management services for two or more chronic condi$67.00
99442Telephone medical discussion$83.84
99443Telephone medical discussion$120.39
99487Complex chronic care management services for two or more chronic condi$124.70
99496Transitional care management services for problem of high complexity$252.87
99426Principal care management services for a single high-risk disease$60.08

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.