CPT 99221 Hospital Visit

Initial Hospital Admission — Low Complexity

What should this cost?

Medicare Pays

$130

National benchmark

Typical Range

$250–$600

What hospitals charge

Markup

Above Medicare rate

What this code means on your bill

The physician first evaluation when you are admitted to the hospital for straightforward conditions.

Commonly billed for

Simple hospital admissions, observation stays

What to watch for

Upcoding

If your visit seemed straightforward but you see a high-level code, the provider may have billed for a more complex service than what was performed. Compare the code level to the time you actually spent with the doctor.

Duplicate charges

Check if this code appears more than once on the same date of service. Unless you had the same procedure performed twice (rare), a duplicate is likely a billing error.

Price check

If you're being charged more than 720 for this service, it's significantly above the typical range. Request an itemized bill and compare against the Medicare rate of $130.

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Related billing codes

99222

Initial Hospital Admission — Moderate

Medicare: $195

99223

Initial Hospital Admission — High Complexity

Medicare: $270

99231

Subsequent Hospital Visit — Low

Medicare: $46

99232

Subsequent Hospital Visit — Moderate

Medicare: $74