Pathology Services · P9603
Travel Allowance One Way In Connection With Medically Necessary Laboratory Specimen Collection Drawn From Home Bound Or Nursing Home Bound Patient; Prorated Miles Actually Travelled
What Medicare pays for P9603, what providers bill, and how the price varies across 39 states, drawn from CMS 2023 claims data.
- $1.05
- Medicare pays
- $1.65
- Providers bill
- 1.6×
- Markup
- #14 of 9,297
- Volume rank
The verdict
Travel Allowance One Way In Connection With Medically Necessary Laboratory Specimen Collection Drawn From Home Bound Or Nursing Home Bound Patient; Prorated Miles Actually Travelled posts top-1% national service volume.
- Top 1%
- national service volume
- $1.05
- Medicare pays, national avg
Volume percentile ranks this code's national service volume against every tracked procedure; markup percentile ranks its billed-to-Medicare ratio the same way. The same two figures drive both the verdict sentence and the chips above.
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the 2023 Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners dataset records payments for 9,297 procedure codes billed across 5,426 hospitals in 56 states and territories; see our methodology for how each figure is sourced and computed.
Jurisdiction coverage for this code
56states and territories in the CMS extract
Price Range Across States
What You Might Pay
Estimated using RAND 2024 commercial-to-Medicare ratios. Actual prices vary by insurer, plan, and facility.
How we estimate these prices
These estimates are based on the RAND Hospital Price Transparency Study (4th Edition, 2024). We map each PlainProcedure category onto a RAND CPT-section bucket (Surgery, Radiology, Pathology and Laboratory, Medicine, Anesthesia, Evaluation and Management) or fall back to the national average when no bucket matches. For Pathology Services, the applied ratio is 1.85x Medicare (RAND 2024 Pathology and Laboratory bucket (1.85x) + CMS Medicare baseline). Cash/self-pay estimates blend typical cash discounts (55% of billed charges) with Medicare-based estimates (150% of allowed amounts). These are statistical estimates, not quotes. Contact your insurer or provider for actual costs.
What the billed charge breaks down into
$1.65
Prices by State
| State | Medicare Payment | Billed Charge |
|---|---|---|
| California | $1.10 | $1.57 |
| Delaware | $1.09 | $2.11 |
| Connecticut | $1.09 | $2.77 |
| Washington | $1.09 | $3.29 |
| Minnesota | $1.09 | $3.55 |
| Indiana | $1.09 | $1.11 |
| Oregon | $1.09 | $1.25 |
| South Carolina | $1.09 | $1.99 |
| Utah | $1.09 | $1.11 |
| Mississippi | $1.09 | $1.96 |
| Georgia | $1.09 | $1.24 |
| Colorado | $1.09 | $3.25 |
| North Dakota | $1.09 | $2.78 |
| New Jersey | $1.09 | $1.14 |
| Nevada | $1.09 | $1.32 |
| Maryland | $1.09 | $1.22 |
| Massachusetts | $1.08 | $3.43 |
| Illinois | $1.08 | $2.13 |
| Michigan | $1.08 | $2.23 |
| Oklahoma | $1.08 | $1.11 |
| Missouri | $1.08 | $1.36 |
| Maine | $1.08 | $1.10 |
| Texas | $1.07 | $2.03 |
| Alabama | $1.07 | $1.80 |
| Arizona | $1.07 | $1.43 |
| New York | $1.07 | $1.19 |
| Florida | $1.07 | $1.83 |
| Tennessee | $1.07 | $2.17 |
| Arkansas | $1.06 | $1.42 |
| Virginia | $1.06 | $1.13 |
| North Carolina | $1.06 | $1.20 |
| Kansas | $1.06 | $1.25 |
| Ohio | $1.05 | $1.08 |
| Louisiana | $1.05 | $1.07 |
| Wisconsin | $1.04 | $1.19 |
| Rhode Island | $0.97 | $1.02 |
| Kentucky | $0.96 | $1.50 |
| Iowa | $0.75 | $2.81 |
| Pennsylvania | $0.18 | $0.27 |
What the Data Says About Travel Allowance One Way In Connection With Medically Necessary Laboratory Specimen Collection Drawn From Home Bound Or Nursing Home Bound Patient; Prorated Miles Actually Travelled
Across 39 states with reporting providers, CPT code P9603 (Travel Allowance One Way In Connection With Medically Necessary Laboratory Specimen Collection Drawn From Home Bound Or Nursing Home Bound Patient; Prorated Miles Actually Travelled) shows a national average Medicare payment of $1.05 against an average billed charge of $1.65. That gap, a 1.6x markup, or 58% above the Medicare allowed amount, is not a meaningful ratio for this low-payment code, so treat the billed figure as a chargemaster reference point rather than a real-world price.
Pathology Services procedures like this one saw 46.3M services billed to Medicare in 2023 by 416 distinct providers, serving 585.8K unique beneficiaries. State-level variation is significant: Pennsylvania reports the lowest average payment at $0.18, while California reports the highest at $1.10. A 500% spread this wide is typically a GPCI story: practice-expense and malpractice-premium components of the fee formula diverge sharply by locality even though the procedure code never changes. Applying the RAND 2024 commercial-to-Medicare ratio for this category (1.85x Medicare; RAND 2024 Pathology and Laboratory bucket (1.85x) + CMS Medicare baseline), the estimated commercial insurance price lands near $1.94, with self-pay cash discounts commonly bringing the figure closer to $1.24. Within Pathology Services, Travel Allowance One Way In Connection With Medically Necessary Laboratory Specimen Collection Drawn From Home Bound Or Nursing Home Bound Patient; Prorated Miles Actually Travelled ranks #20 of 20 tracked procedures by national average Medicare payment.
Where this sits in the registry
Travel Allowance One Way In Connection With Medically Necessary Laboratory Specimen Collection Drawn From Home Bound Or Nursing Home Bound Patient; Prorated Miles Actually Travelled (P9603) is a CMS 2023 Part B code. These pages keep the volume map and the markup map separate.
- National volume versus markup on the statistics page, the same two maps as this capsule. Statistics
- Other Pathology Services codes, ranked by Medicare payment inside the category. Category
- How volume rank and markup rank are computed. Methodology
- The full procedures listing in volume order. Procedures
Figures here are CMS averages, not a quote for any patient, plan, or visit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where does Travel Allowance One Way In Connection With Medically Necessary Laboratory Specimen Collection Drawn From Home Bound Or Nursing Home Bound Patient; Prorated Miles Actually Travelled rank among Medicare procedures?
According to CMS Medicare Part B claims, Travel Allowance One Way In Connection With Medically Necessary Laboratory Specimen Collection Drawn From Home Bound Or Nursing Home Bound Patient; Prorated Miles Actually Travelled (CPT P9603) ranks #14 of 9,297 procedures by national service volume, the same sort as the procedures listing, and #20 of 20 within Pathology Services by national average Medicare payment. See /methodology#corpus-placement.
How much does Travel Allowance One Way In Connection With Medically Necessary Laboratory Specimen Collection Drawn From Home Bound Or Nursing Home Bound Patient; Prorated Miles Actually Travelled cost?
Travel Allowance One Way In Connection With Medically Necessary Laboratory Specimen Collection Drawn From Home Bound Or Nursing Home Bound Patient; Prorated Miles Actually Travelled (CPT P9603) shows unusually wide state-to-state pricing: Medicare pays $1.05 on average nationally, but the $0.18-$1.10 range across states spans more than double from cheapest to priciest.
Why do providers charge more than Medicare pays?
Providers set their own chargemaster rates (billed charges), which are typically much higher than what any insurer pays. Medicare pays a fixed rate based on the procedure code and geographic location. The billed charge is relevant mainly for uninsured patients, who may face prices closer to the submitted charge.
How much does Travel Allowance One Way In Connection With Medically Necessary Laboratory Specimen Collection Drawn From Home Bound Or Nursing Home Bound Patient; Prorated Miles Actually Travelled cost with insurance?
With commercial insurance, travel allowance one way in connection with medically necessary laboratory specimen collection drawn from home bound or nursing home bound patient; prorated miles actually travelled costs an estimated $1.94 on average (range: $1.36-$2.71), a moderate premium over Medicare's $1.05. Without insurance, the estimated cash price is $1.24.
Which state has the lowest cost for Travel Allowance One Way In Connection With Medically Necessary Laboratory Specimen Collection Drawn From Home Bound Or Nursing Home Bound Patient; Prorated Miles Actually Travelled?
Pennsylvania has by far the lowest average Medicare payment for Travel Allowance One Way In Connection With Medically Necessary Laboratory Specimen Collection Drawn From Home Bound Or Nursing Home Bound Patient; Prorated Miles Actually Travelled at $0.18, while California pays more than double at $1.10 - a $0.92 gap.
How many providers perform Travel Allowance One Way In Connection With Medically Necessary Laboratory Specimen Collection Drawn From Home Bound Or Nursing Home Bound Patient; Prorated Miles Actually Travelled?
Travel Allowance One Way In Connection With Medically Necessary Laboratory Specimen Collection Drawn From Home Bound Or Nursing Home Bound Patient; Prorated Miles Actually Travelled is comparatively uncommon: only 416 providers nationally billed Medicare for it in 2023, serving 585.8K beneficiaries via 46.3M total services.
What is the billed-to-Medicare markup for Travel Allowance One Way In Connection With Medically Necessary Laboratory Specimen Collection Drawn From Home Bound Or Nursing Home Bound Patient; Prorated Miles Actually Travelled?
Providers bill 1.6x what Medicare pays for Travel Allowance One Way In Connection With Medically Necessary Laboratory Specimen Collection Drawn From Home Bound Or Nursing Home Bound Patient; Prorated Miles Actually Travelled - a markup within the typical range at 58% above the Medicare rate.
Nationwide similar CPT codes
Data-derived peers across the CMS Physician & Other Practitioners extract: nearest national service volume and nearest average Medicare payment. Not clinical substitutes: claim-mass and payment neighborhoods only.
Closest national service volume
Nearest codes with ≥100 services (46.3M here).
Related Guides
Tips to reduce out-of-pocket costs
Your right to upfront pricing
How Medicare payments work
Decode charges and codes
Why bills exceed actual costs
Geographic pricing factors
Data from CMS Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners (2023).
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
Every figure on PlainProcedure is rendered directly from CMS Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on CMS Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, the data changelog, or report a data error.