Hearing Test Cost: Medicare's 2026 Amounts by Code and Your Share

Medicare's approved amount for audiology codes in 2026

A hearing test is billed with codes, and each code has its own amount in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. The table on this page reads the national amounts from the CMS 2026 relative value file, October 2026 release, for the audiology and vestibular codes in our range. Each row is one code; the table never combines codes into a visit total.

A few rows show how far apart the codes sit. In an office, code 92557 is $35.74, code 92552 is $40.42, code 92550 is $21.71 and code 92567 is $16.03. Code 92540 is $103.54 and code 92546 is $134.61.

These are national amounts. The file's readme says fee schedule amounts are adjusted to reflect the variation in practice costs from area to area, with a geographic practice cost index (GPCI) for every Medicare payment locality, so the amount where you live can sit above or below the national figure.

We print code numbers without their descriptions. The CMS file states that CPT codes and descriptions are copyrighted by the American Medical Association, and our permission to reprint them is not established. Ask the clinic which codes it plans to bill, then find each one in the table.

Office or facility: one code, two amounts

CMS publishes two amounts per code: a non-facility amount, for a service done in an office, and a facility amount. For code 92557 they are $35.74 and $25.72. For code 92567 they are $16.03 and $8.68, for 92570 $31.40 and $23.71, for 92579 $43.09 and $29.73, and for 92568 $15.36 and $12.69.

Many rows carry an office amount only. Codes 92550 and 92552 carry "NA" in the Facility NA Indicator field of the CMS file, so the table shows "Not published for this row". That blank is not a zero: CMS sets no facility amount for the row.

The hospital side is paid on a different basis. CMS writes that audiology services are paid under the Physician Fee Schedule, while audiology furnished to a hospital outpatient is paid under the hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System. A fee schedule amount is therefore not the full bill for a test done in a hospital outpatient department, and Medicare.gov adds that in that setting you also pay the hospital a copayment.

Professional and technical rows overlap: do not add them

Some codes appear three times in the file: once with no modifier, once with modifier 26, the professional component, and once with modifier TC, the technical component.

For code 92537, the three rows are $39.41, $30.39 and $9.02. For code 92546 they are $134.61, $14.70 and $119.91. For code 92540 they are $103.54, $74.48 and $29.06.

CMS lists these rows separately, and they overlap. Adding the row without a modifier to the 26 or TC row would count the same service twice, so the table keeps the three rows side by side and never sums them. If a bill shows a code with 26 or TC, compare it with that row, not with the row without a modifier.

Two codes with no amount, and what status A means

Code 92551 has CMS status N, which the file's readme defines as non-covered, and code 92558 has status X, which the readme defines as an item or service not in the statutory definition of "physician services" for fee schedule payment purposes. Neither row has a payment amount, and the table leaves both blank rather than printing a zero.

The other rows cited on this page have status A, which the readme defines as paid separately under the fee schedule, if covered. The last three words matter: status A says the code has a price when the service is covered for you. It does not say that Medicare covers your test.

What you pay: Original Medicare, a plan or cash

Original Medicare

Medicare.gov's page on hearing and balance exams sets your share: after the Part B deductible, you pay 20% of the Medicare-approved amount, and other costs may apply. If the exam takes place in a hospital outpatient setting, you also pay the hospital a copayment.

You do not always need an order first. Medicare.gov says you can visit an audiologist once every 12 months without an order from your health care provider, but only for the conditions it lists, starting with non-acute hearing conditions. Our page on whether Medicare covers a hearing test goes through those conditions.

A Medicare Advantage or private plan

The cost sharing is the one written in your plan documents. This page holds no plan data; our free hearing test page reads Medicare Advantage routine exam copays from CMS plan files.

Paying cash

You pay the clinic's own price. No source of clinic prices that we have checked meets our standard, so none is printed here. Insurance that audiologists buy for their own practice, such as liability cover, is a separate subject this page does not address.

Why this page prints no clinic cash price

Some results for this search quote clinic price ranges or estimated state cash prices. We have not validated any source of clinic prices, so this page prints no range.

A fee schedule amount is what Medicare allows for a covered service before the deductible and coinsurance. It is not a price charged to patients, it is not the full hospital bill, and it says nothing about whether a given test is covered for you.

What the amounts do give you is a public, dated benchmark per code. If a clinic gives you a cash quote, ask for the codes behind it and set each line against the table: you will know what Medicare would allow for the same code, in the same setting. The method behind these figures is on our methodology page.