CPT code 99360: Physician standby, per 30 minutes2026 Medicare rate & RVUs

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

What 99360 covers

99360 represents physician standby: a physician remains available to intervene if needed rather than furnishing the planned procedure or participating in a care-planning conference. The physician providing the standby service reports it. The code is counted in 30-minute increments and describes availability for a possible intervention, not prolonged work performed without patient contact. It is distinguished from conference participation and prolonged non-contact work by what the physician is doing during the reported time.

Medicare assigns status X, a statutory exclusion from physician fee schedule payment because this is not a physician service under the Medicare statute. When covered, it is paid under another fee schedule or payment system. Report one unit for each 30-minute increment of standby 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 99360 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

99360 rates by state

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

How the 99360 rate is calculated

Each of 99360’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 99360

99360 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.

99360 compared with similar codes

How to choose

99358Prolonged E/MWithout direct contact

99358 describes prolonged work without direct patient contact. 99360 describes being available to intervene if needed.

99359Prolonged serviceAdditional 30 minutes

99359 is an add-on for prolonged work without direct patient contact; it does not describe physician standby.

99367Team conferencePhysician, patient absent

99367 describes a physician’s team conference without the patient. 99360 describes standby availability, not conference participation.

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