CPT code 99238: Hospital discharge, 30 minutes or less2026 Medicare rate & RVUs in New Mexico

In New Mexico, Medicare pays $73.90 for 99238 in a facility. There’s no office rate.

Check a contract rate as a % of Medicare · 99238 nationwide

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

What 99238 covers

This service covers management of a hospital inpatient or observation discharge on a calendar date after admission. The discharging physician or qualified health care professional may perform a final evaluation, discuss the hospital course and continuing care with the patient or caregivers, reconcile medications, prepare prescriptions and referrals, arrange follow-up, and complete discharge records. Hospitalists and other practitioners responsible for the stay commonly perform this work in the hospital.

Choose 99238 when discharge management takes 30 minutes or less; use 99239 when documented discharge-date time exceeds 30 minutes. Count discharge work performed throughout that date, including preparation of the summary, even when the work is not continuous. If time is not documented, report 99238 rather than the higher-time code. The practitioner responsible for discharge reports one discharge management service; other practitioners who provide medically necessary visits select subsequent hospital inpatient or observation care as appropriate. The record should identify the discharge date and support the evaluation, instructions, medications, and follow-up arrangements.

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.

How New Mexico compares for 99238

Across 109 of 109 payment localities, the facility rate for 99238 runs from $69.95 in Arkansas to $99.42 in Alaska. New Mexico pays $73.90. The RVUs are the same everywhere; the geographic indexes change the dollars.

Every other payment area

99238 rates by state

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

See 99238 in every payment locality

How the 99238 rate is calculated

Each of 99238’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 99238

99238 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.

Codes related to 99238

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

How 99238 has changed in New Mexico

Price 99238 for an earlier date of service

Where the New Mexico rate applies

New Mexico is a Medicare payment area, not a city. Our Census mapping connects it to 528 cities and communities in New Mexico. Some span more than one payment area; confirm with the service ZIP.

• Abeytas
• Abiquiu
• Acomita Lake
• Adelino
• Agua Fria
• Alamillo
• Alamo
• Alamogordo

Browse all communities in New Mexico

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