CPT code 59051: Fetal monitoring, interpretation only during labor2026 Medicare rate & RVUs

Medicare pays $36.41 for 59051 nationally in a facility.

Medicare allowed amount for participating (non-QP) physicians, before deductible, coinsurance and claim adjustments. Not a patient’s bill or a hospital charge.

What 59051 covers

A physician consulted during labor reviews fetal monitoring, including the fetal heart-rate tracing, and provides a clinical interpretation. The service is specific to intrapartum monitoring; it is not an antepartum nonstress test or the performance of a procedure such as fetal scalp blood sampling. It may be relevant when the clinician managing labor requests another physician’s assessment of the tracing.

Choose this code when the service is interpretation only. Use 59050 when the consulting physician’s service includes interpretation and a report. Documentation should identify the labor-related consultation, the tracing assessed, the physician’s interpretation, and the resulting clinical assessment. The claim should represent the interpretation service actually provided, rather than the broader interpretation-and-report service.

This summary was written with AI assistance from CMS physician fee schedule data and checked against the CMS billing rules shown here. Rates on this page come directly from CMS files.

Where 59051 pays more and less

The same RVUs, adjusted for each area’s costs. Open a locality for its calculation, history and nearby areas.

109 of 109 payment localities

59051 rates by state

Office rate range in each state. Select a state to see its payment localities.

How the 59051 rate is calculated

Each of 59051’s three RVUs is multiplied by a geographic index (GPCI) for the payment locality, added up, and multiplied by the conversion factor. Drag the indexes or enter a ZIP to see what moves the rate.

Payment rules and modifiers for 59051

59051 has no global surgery period, no multiple-procedure, bilateral or assistant-at-surgery adjustment, and no professional/technical split. What changes the payment is where the service happens: the place of service on the claim decides whether Medicare pays the office or the facility rate.

59051 compared with similar codes

How to choose

59050Labor monitoringConsultant monitoring and report

Use 59051 for the consulting physician’s interpretation-only service. Use 59050 when the service includes interpretation and a report.

59025Fetal testingNonstress test

59025 describes an antepartum nonstress test. 59051 concerns a physician’s interpretation of fetal monitoring during labor.

59020Fetal stress testContraction-induced monitoring

59020 is a contraction stress test used for antepartum fetal surveillance; 59051 is interpretation of intrapartum monitoring.

Codes related to 59051

Related codes aren’t interchangeable: bill the code that matches the service performed.

Where these rates come from

FeeBase calculates base physician payments from CMS work, practice-expense and malpractice RVUs, adjusted by each locality’s geographic indexes and the conversion factor. Services without a published rate are labeled, never given a made-up amount. Amounts are Medicare allowed amounts before claim adjustments: not a patient’s bill or a commercial rate.

CMS RVU26D · effective Oct 1, 2026 through the day before Jan 1, 2027

Open CMS sourceHow we calculate rates