99238 Medicaid reimbursement rate by state (2026)

• Order. States are listed from the highest published rate to the lowest. No single unit is shared by 8 or more states for 99238, so the order is by published amount and is not a like-for-like rank.
• Medicaid rate. The most the state's fee-for-service program pays for one unit, as published. 36 of the 50 states list more than one rate for 99238, by modifier, provider type or setting; the table shows the one that matches the provider level and setting used across states, without add-ons.
• Unit. Of the 50 states, 2 publish 99238 per unit, and 48 schedules print no unit at all (a flat amount per service).
• Per hour. 99238 is not billed in time units in these states, so no hourly figure is shown.
• Managed-care plans. The rule the state sets for its plans on this rate. What each rule means is explained below.
• % of Medicare. No Medicare physician fee schedule amount is on file for 99238, so there is no percentage.
• Source and date. Each Source link opens the state's own document; “since” is the date the rate took effect.

Published rates for 99238 run from $27.01 in New York to $533.58 in California. The two publish it in different units (no unit printed versus unit), so part of that gap is the unit rather than the price. Half the states pay more than the median of $61.04 and half pay less. The usual reasons for a spread like this in physician & professional rates:

• Some states pay physician services as a percentage of the Medicare fee schedule; others keep a schedule of their own that may not have been rebased for years.
• Primary-care and pediatric add-ons, enhanced rates for certain specialties and targeted increases for access problems change individual codes without moving the rest of the schedule.
• Modifiers such as professional or technical component, bilateral, multiple procedure and assistant at surgery change the amount paid, and states apply them with their own percentages.

Timing matters too. 29 states set the current rate for 99238 in 2026 or later, while 8 states still pay a rate that took effect in 2022 or earlier. A state that has not updated its rate in years will drift down the ranking as others raise theirs.

Most Medicaid members are in managed-care plans, and plans don't publish their provider fee schedules. For 99238, the public signal is the rule each state sets for its plans, recorded on each rate above.

In 14 states, the published rate binds plans: a floor, a pass-through or a state-set rate. In 22 states, plans negotiate and the published rate is a benchmark or out-of-network default. In 1 state, the service is paid outside the plans or through a state-directed payment. The rule for the remaining 13 states is not classified yet.

• Plans negotiate; the published rate applies out of network (22 states). In-network rates can be above or below the published rate. The published rate is the benchmark both sides know, and the fallback if no contract is signed.
• Plans must pay at least the published rate (14 states). The published rate is your floor. Negotiate up from it, and if a plan pays less, the contract provision is the basis for a payment dispute.
• Paid by the state, outside the plans (1 state). Bill the state's Medicaid program, not the plan, at the published rate. There is no plan contract to negotiate for this service.

Plan-negotiated rates are never estimated here. To see the rule and its citation for a particular state, open that state's managed-care page, for example California managed care.

99238 is a CPT evaluation and management code in the physician & professional line, billed mostly by physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and other licensed practitioners. Evaluation and management codes are billed once per visit. The code itself sets the level of the visit, so there is no time unit to multiply, and the setting (office, hospital, facility) decides which code applies.

Practitioners who are not physicians are often paid a reduced percentage of the published amount, so check the schedule for the reduction that applies to your provider type. Physician-fee-schedule codes are billed per service: one unit is one occurrence unless the code itself is defined by time or quantity.

Before billing, confirm the rate, unit and any modifier with the state's current schedule or the plan: the amounts here are as published, not a guarantee of payment.