How much does Medicare pay for HCPCS Q4046?

Medicare allowed an average of $21.80 per service and paid $16.83 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $58.41, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is HCPCS code Q4046?

Cast supplies, short leg splint, adult (11 years +), fiberglass. It was billed 1,811 times to 1,119 Medicare beneficiaries by 68 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills Q4046 most?

Podiatry, with 673 services from 25 clinicians. Next are Orthopedic Surgery, Physician Assistant, Internal Medicine.

HCPCS Q4046

Cast supplies, short leg splint, adult (11 years +), fiberglass

$21.80Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 1,811 services

Providers submitted

$58.41

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$21.80

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$16.83

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $58.41 for this code and Medicare allowed $21.80 — 2.7× 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 $16.83 (77%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 1,811
Beneficiaries: 1,119
Providers billing it: 68
Total allowed: $39,480

What Medicare pays for HCPCS Q4046

Across 1,811 services billed by 68 providers to 1,119 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $21.80 per service. That is 1.6 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 Q4046

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Podiatry	673	389	$21.40	25
Orthopedic Surgery	585	448	$21.98	28
Physician Assistant	282	225	$22.43	11
Internal Medicine	217	15	$21.60	1
Nurse Practitioner	54	42	$22.42	3

Q4046 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
Oklahoma	280	$21.79	$17.75	3
California	175	$22.41	$17.65	6
Florida	166	$22.15	$17.27	7
Texas	140	$22.44	$16.46	5
Tennessee	90	$20.80	$18.01	5
Maryland	75	$22.15	$17.44	4
New Mexico	71	$18.54	$17.65	3
Virginia	70	$22.41	$17.60	2
Minnesota	68	$22.43	$16.81	1
Colorado	56	$22.41	$17.86	3
Louisiana	51	$21.72	$17.35	2
North Dakota	48	$22.44	$16.28	1
New Jersey	44	$22.42	$17.49	1
Michigan	42	$21.88	$17.97	1
Arizona	41	$22.45	$15.97	3
Illinois	40	$22.41	$17.86	2
Massachusetts	38	$22.42	$17.39	2
South Dakota	36	$22.41	$17.86	2
Mississippi	34	$22.42	$17.33	2
Pennsylvania	32	$21.71	$18.00	2
Indiana	30	$21.66	$18.01	1
Nevada	25	$21.51	$18.03	1
South Carolina	21	$8.87	$17.65	1
Alaska	21	$22.44	$16.16	1
Alabama	20	$22.43	$16.97	1
Washington	18	$22.45	$15.88	1
Georgia	18	$19.95	$16.65	1
New Hampshire	18	$22.43	$16.87	1
Ohio	15	$22.41	$17.86	1
North Carolina	15	$22.41	$17.86	1
Nebraska	13	$22.47	$15.11	1

Related codes

Q4010Cast supplies$23.01
Q4038Cast supplies$47.92
Q4022Cast supplies$14.44
Q4037Cast supplies$19.43
Q4049Finger splint$2.51
Q4021Cast supplies$8.05
Q4014Cast supplies$31.42

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.