HCPCS G9486: Remote E/MMedicare rate & RVUs

Medicare pays $18.04 for G9486 nationally in the office and $18.04 in a hospital or facility. Local office rates run $16.63–$25.15.

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

What G9486 covers

A clinician uses this code for a remote evaluation and management service for someone already established with the practice, with the service assigned to the 10-minute tier. It describes clinical assessment and management conducted remotely, rather than a new-patient evaluation. The code can be relevant when an established patient receives remote attention for a current health concern, such as symptom follow-up or discussion of a treatment issue. The CMS descriptor identifies remote E/M but does not specify a particular communication platform or specialty.

Choose G9486 for the 10-minute established-patient tier, rather than a longer time tier or a new-patient tier. Documentation should support established-patient status, the clinical issue addressed, the remote service, and time consistent with the selected tier. CMS physician fee schedule data assigns work and malpractice RVUs and zero practice-expense RVUs in both office and facility settings; those inputs do not state a payment amount.

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 G9486 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

G9486 rates by state

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

How the G9486 rate is calculated

Each of G9486’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 G9486

G9486 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.

G9486 compared with similar codes

How to choose

G9481Remote E/M

Both are 10-minute remote E/M tiers, but G9481 is for a new patient and G9486 is for an established patient.

G9487Remote E/M

Use G9487 for the 15-minute established-patient tier; G9486 is the 10-minute tier.

G9488Remote E/M

G9488 identifies the 25-minute established-patient tier, rather than G9486's 10-minute tier.

Codes related to G9486

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