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CMS RVU26D · Effective 2026-10-01

96161 Health risk assessment Medicare reimbursement rates in Ohio

Report a scored, documented standardized health risk instrument completed by a caregiver to identify risks relevant to the patient’s care. Compare 96161 office and facility rates across CMS payment localities in Ohio.

Amounts below use the non-QP conversion factor for participating physicians. These are base physician payments before claim-level adjustments, not patient costs or total hospital charges.

What does Medicare pay for 96161 in Ohio?

Ohio has 1 payment locality in this comparison. Use the service location to choose the applicable amount. These are the supported base rates for the payment area shown below, using the same CMS release.

Office / nonfacility

$3.05

1 of 1 localities have a supported rate.

Payment area: Ohio

One mapped payment locality.

Facility setting

No supported rate

These are locality ranges, not averages or address-specific quotes. A facility-setting amount covers the physician service; it does not include a hospital’s separate bill. Choose a locality below to inspect its calculation, compare other payment areas, or price a percentage of Medicare.

Find 96161 in your payment locality →

Health behavior assessment

About 96161: Caregiver-focused health risk assessment

Report a scored, documented standardized health risk instrument completed by a caregiver to identify risks relevant to the patient’s care.

This service covers a standardized health risk instrument completed by a patient’s caregiver for the patient’s benefit, followed by scoring and documentation. A typical example is a caregiver completing a depression or stress screening during a child’s visit. The instrument concerns the caregiver’s health risks as they relate to the patient’s care; it is not a general clinical evaluation of the caregiver for the caregiver’s own treatment. The service may be provided in an office or another setting where the patient is receiving care.

Choose this code when the caregiver-focused instrument is administered, scored, and documented, rather than when the patient completes the instrument. Record the instrument used, who completed it, the score or result, and its relevance to the patient’s care. CMS treats this as an add-on code: report it only with a primary procedure, and payment falls within that procedure’s global period. It is an incident-to service and may be billed only when performed under physician supervision.

CMS billing rules for 96161

Global period
Add-on code: billed only together with a primary procedure and paid within that procedure's global period.
Professional and technical components
Incident-to service: billed only when performed under physician supervision.

Where the value comes from

  • Work RVU0.00 · 0%
  • Practice expense (office) RVU0.10 · 100%
  • Malpractice RVU0.00 · 0%

7.3K

Medicare services in 2024 · #1634 by national volume

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.

96161 compared with similar codes

Office rates for Ohio, from the same CMS release.

96160

Health risk assessment

Patient-focused instrument

$2.74

Use 96161 when the caregiver completes the health risk instrument for the patient’s benefit. Use 96160 when the patient is the focus of the instrument.

96127

Behavioral screening tool

Per scored standardized instrument

$4.61

96127 is a brief emotional or behavioral assessment of the patient. 96161 concerns a caregiver-focused health risk instrument.

96156

Health behavior assessment

Assessment or reassessment

$105.23

96156 describes a health behavior assessment or reassessment. 96161 is specifically for a standardized health risk instrument completed by the caregiver.

Compare 96161 by payment locality

Find the payment area for your service address, then open its rate page for calculation inputs, release history and the percentage-of-Medicare tool. A city may cross payment-area boundaries; the ZIP lookup above helps resolve the location.

1 of 1 payment localities

Office and facility base rates · shared scale starting at $0
  • Ohio →

    Office / nonfacility

    $3.05

    Facility

    Unavailable

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How this local rate is calculated

Each RVU component is multiplied by its own geographic practice cost index (GPCI). The three adjusted components are added, then multiplied by the conversion factor. These are the inputs used for 96161 in Ohio.

PPRRVU2026_Oct_nonQPP.csv

12,768

Code
96161
Physician work
0.00
Practice expense
0.10
Malpractice
0.00

GPCI2026.csv

85

Locality
Ohio
Physician work
1.000
Practice expense
0.913
Malpractice
1.008
Office / nonfacility calculation for 96161 in Ohio
ComponentRVULocality factorAdjusted
Physician work0.00× 1.0000.0000
Practice expense0.10× 0.9130.0913
Malpractice0.00× 1.0080.0000
Total RVUs0.0913
Conversion factor× 33.4009

Office / nonfacility rate, Ohio$3.05

Explore RVUs, geographic factors and the full formula

Office / nonfacility

Office / nonfacility calculation inputs
ComponentRVULocal GPCI
Work01
Practice expense0.10.913
Malpractice01.008

(0 × 1 + 0.1 × 0.913 + 0 × 1.008) × $33.4009 = $3.05

The office and facility calculations use their respective practice-expense RVUs. The facility amount here is the physician fee, not a separate hospital or facility bill.

96161 billing questions

How is 96161 different from 96160?

96161 is for a health risk instrument completed by the caregiver for the patient’s benefit. 96160 is for an instrument focused on the patient.

Can 96161 be submitted by itself?

No. CMS identifies it as an add-on code, so the claim must include a primary procedure.

Does the caregiver have to complete a standardized instrument?

Yes. The service requires a caregiver-focused standardized health risk instrument, with scoring and documentation.

What documentation supports reporting 96161?

Document the instrument, the caregiver who completed it, the score or result, and how the information relates to the patient’s care.

Can practice staff perform this service?

It may be billed as an incident-to service only when performed under physician supervision.

Is 96161’s payment separate from the primary procedure’s global period?

CMS places payment for this add-on within the primary procedure’s global period.

Where these rates come from

FeeBase calculates base physician payments from CMS work, practice-expense, and malpractice RVUs, adjusted by each locality’s geographic indices and the applicable conversion factor. Unavailable or separately priced services are labeled rather than assigned a made-up amount.

Source: RVU26D. Effective 2026-10-01 through the day before 2027-01-01.

RVUs for 96161PPRRVU2026_Oct_nonQPP.csv, line 12,768 (RVU26D)
Geographic factors for OhioGPCI2026.csv, line 85 (RVU26D)