CPT 66987
Contractor-priced — your Medicare Administrative Contractor sets the amount, not a national fee schedule.
No national payment amount
Your Medicare Administrative Contractor prices this code case by case, usually after reviewing documentation.
Contractor-published range
$702.47–$928.92
Enter your ZIP above for the exact amount. Contractor files on record cover 18 of 119 payment localities — a locality we don't hold means our coverage is incomplete, not that Medicare pays $0.
How much does Medicare pay for CPT 66987? Copy link
CPT 66987 carries status C (carrier-priced) in the Q2 2024 release, so there is no single national rate — Medicare contractors publish their own amounts. Your Medicare Administrative Contractor prices this code case by case, usually after reviewing documentation. Contractor-published amounts on file range $702.47–$928.92 across 18 localities; enter a ZIP for the exact local amount.
Source: Physician relative value file (Q2 2024) · effective April 2024 · materially updated Aug 11, 2026 · compact facts
Why isn't there a national PFS amount?
- Status C (Carrier-priced): Your Medicare Administrative Contractor prices this code case by case, usually after reviewing documentation.
- Carrier-priced: no national payment amount.
CMS evidence · 2 sources
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Find the local Medicare amount for 66987 Copy link
Medicare sets this price locally
66987 has no single national Physician Fee Schedule amount. Use the ZIP, modifier, setting, and participation fields above to match it to a Medicare locality and the contractor amount we have on file.
Your practical estimate will appear here
We hold files from First_coast and Novitas across JH and JN, most recently effective Mar 1, 2024. A missing locality means our contractor coverage is incomplete—not that Medicare pays $0.
This is the published amount for this code—not necessarily the entire visit or procedure. A hospital may bill a separate facility charge, and other services, drugs, or supplies can add to the total.
View all 18 published fee rows
| Jurisdiction / locality | Modifier | Note | Par | Non-par | Limiting charge | Effective | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JH · Arkansas, Area 13 CMS 07102-13 | — | — | $702.47 | $667.35 | $767.45 | Mar 1, 2024 | Contractor file |
| JH · Colorado, Area 01 CMS 04112-01 | — | — | $773.09 | $734.44 | $844.61 | Mar 1, 2024 | Contractor file |
| JH · Louisiana, Area 01 CMS 07202-01 | — | — | $747.53 | $710.15 | $816.67 | Mar 1, 2024 | Contractor file |
| JH · Louisiana, Area 99 CMS 07202-99 | — | — | $725.54 | $689.26 | $792.65 | Mar 1, 2024 | Contractor file |
| JH · Mississippi, Area 00 CMS 07302-00 | — | — | $709.31 | $673.84 | $774.92 | Mar 1, 2024 | Contractor file |
| JH · New Mexico, Area 05 CMS 04212-05 | — | — | $740.30 | $703.29 | $808.78 | Mar 1, 2024 | Contractor file |
| JH · Oklahoma, Area 00 CMS 04312-00 | — | — | $722.24 | $686.13 | $789.05 | Mar 1, 2024 | Contractor file |
| JH · Texas, Area 09 CMS 04412-09 | — | — | $760.93 | $722.88 | $831.31 | Mar 1, 2024 | Contractor file |
| JH · Texas, Area 11 CMS 04412-11 | — | — | $762.92 | $724.77 | $833.49 | Mar 1, 2024 | Contractor file |
| JH · Texas, Area 15 CMS 04412-15 | — | — | $761.40 | $723.33 | $831.83 | Mar 1, 2024 | Contractor file |
| JH · Texas, Area 18 CMS 04412-18 | — | — | $782.55 | $743.42 | $854.93 | Mar 1, 2024 | Contractor file |
| JH · Texas, Area 20 CMS 04412-20 | — | — | $730.62 | $694.09 | $798.20 | Mar 1, 2024 | Contractor file |
| JH · Texas, Area 28 CMS 04412-28 | — | — | $761.23 | $723.17 | $831.65 | Mar 1, 2024 | Contractor file |
| JH · Texas, Area 31 CMS 04412-31 | — | — | $770.78 | $732.24 | $842.08 | Mar 1, 2024 | Contractor file |
| JH · Texas, Area 99 CMS 04412-99 | — | — | $742.29 | $705.18 | $810.96 | Mar 1, 2024 | Contractor file |
| JN · Florida, Area 03 CMS 09102-03 | — | — | $890.74 | $846.20 | $973.13 | Jan 1, 2024 | Contractor file |
| JN · Florida, Area 04 CMS 09102-04 | — | — | $928.92 | $882.47 | $1,014.84 | Jan 1, 2024 | Contractor file |
| JN · Florida, Area 99 CMS 09102-99 | — | — | $853.46 | $810.79 | $932.41 | Jan 1, 2024 | Contractor file |
The authenticated MAC fees API returns the same source rows. ZIP5s that span localities are flagged and use only the crosswalk's dominant locality until ZIP+4 overrides are available.
Common questions Copy link
Why is there no payment amount for 66987?
Its status indicator is C (carrier-priced). Your Medicare Administrative Contractor prices this code case by case, usually after reviewing documentation. The blank is deliberate: the amount is either unknown or paid under another provision, so reading it as $0 would be wrong.
Why would a Medicare claim for 66987 be denied or paid less?
These come from CMS indicators on this page, not general billing advice.
- Its status indicator is C (carrier-priced) — Your Medicare Administrative Contractor prices this code case by case, usually after reviewing documentation. See status indicators
- 66987 carries a 90-day global period — routine post-operative care within that window is included in the surgical payment rather than paid on its own claim. See how it's computed
- Assistant at surgery: restricted without documentation. See billing policy
- Co-surgeons: payable with documentation. See billing policy
- Team surgery: payable with documentation. See billing policy
- Multiple procedures: standard reduction applies. See billing policy
Payer-specific coverage and documentation rules live outside these files, so a claim that clears every check here can still be denied on other grounds.
When does this rate change?
CMS publishes a fee schedule release every quarter (January, April, July, October), and each is versioned here. See what changed each release, or get an email when a new release moves rates.
Sources: CMS Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Relative Value Files.
Applicable payment rules Copy link
Only the rules that can matter for 66987, each linking to its detail on this page.
Global period: what 66987's fee already covers Copy link
Major surgery. The fee covers the day before surgery, the day of surgery, and the 90 days after it. Related follow-up care inside that window is not billed separately.
Billing a related follow-up visit inside the 90-day window is the most common way this code gets denied — the payment for that care is already inside the 66987 fee.
| Modifier | Reports |
|---|---|
| -25 | A significant, separately identifiable E/M on the same day as the procedure, beyond its usual pre- and post-operative care. |
| -57 | The E/M at which the decision to operate was made. Major surgery only — a minor procedure has no day-before pre-operative period. |
| -24 | An E/M during the follow-up window that is unrelated to this surgery, so it is paid separately. |
| -58 | A staged or more extensive follow-on procedure during the window. Starts a new follow-up period. |
| -78 | An unplanned return to the operating room for a related procedure during the window. Does not start a new follow-up period. |
| -79 | An unrelated procedure by the same physician during the window. Starts a new follow-up period. |
A modifier reports what happened; it does not by itself make a service payable. Documentation has to support it.
Billing policy Copy link
What 66987's billing-policy indicators mean. These show for every code, priced or not: a restriction like "bilateral not allowed" still matters on a carrier-priced code.
| Policy | Value | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Bilateral surgery | 1 | 150% bilateral adjustment applies. Billed bilaterally (modifier 50, or on both sides), Medicare pays 150% of the single-side fee schedule amount. |
| Assistant at surgery | 0 | Restricted without documentation. Payment for an assistant at surgery is restricted for this procedure unless supporting documentation establishes medical necessity. |
| Co-surgeons | 1 | Payable with documentation. Co-surgeons may be paid, but only with supporting documentation establishing the medical necessity of two surgeons. |
| Team surgery | 1 | Payable with documentation. A surgical team may be paid, but only with supporting documentation establishing medical necessity. |
| Multiple procedures | 2 | Standard reduction applies. The same standard ranking-and-reduction rule as indicator 1 applies to this procedure when billed with others on the same date. |
| Professional/technical split | 0 | No PC/TC split. This is a physician service code; the professional/technical split does not apply, and the code is billed as a single service. |
Can you bill it with another code? Copy link
Enter a second CPT or HCPCS code billed on the same date of service. We'll check the current NCCI procedure-to-procedure edit between it and 66987.
How often 66987 is billed Copy link
Across Original Medicare in CY2024, 66987 ranked #3,190 of the 7,879 CPT codes billed to Medicare that year, by patients served or total allowed dollars. It repeats: a patient billed for it in 2024 was billed 3.9 times on average that year.
2024 Medicare fee-for-service national totals. They exclude Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and commercial volume, so real-world use runs higher. This is a calendar-year snapshot from the CMS Physician & Other Practitioners dataset, on a different cycle from the Q2 2024 fee schedule above.
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Source & method
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This is computed from CMS's Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Q2 2024 release (schedule pfs, effective April 2024). National amounts apply a GPCI of 1.000 and leave sequestration off. The status indicator decides payability, never the RVU values, so a blank RVU stays blank. Releases are immutable: a rate retrieved for a past quarter always reflects that release. Our methodology covers the depth: sourcing, parsing, versioning, and how we cross-check claims before they ship.
Use the (i) buttons next to each amount above for the exact row, columns, and math.
Cite this rate
This link keeps pointing at the Q2 2024 figures, even after a newer release lands.
CPT 66987 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule rate (Q2 2024). Localis. https://localishealth.com/cpt/66987/2024/B