Q5144 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 Q5144, 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. 4 of the 16 states list more than one rate for Q5144, 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 16 states, 1 publish Q5144 per unit, and 15 schedules print no unit at all (a flat amount per service).
• Per hour. Q5144 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 Q5144, 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 Q5144 run from $10.12 in Arizona to $164.41 in Wisconsin, a 16.2x gap in the same unit. Half the states pay more than the median of $21.80 and half pay less. The usual reasons for a spread like this in physician & professional rates:

• Many schedules pay differently by place of service (office versus facility) and by practitioner, and nurse practitioners and physician assistants are often paid a percentage of the physician amount.
• Each state sets its own physician conversion factor or fee for every code, and many update them on a state budget cycle rather than on Medicare's calendar.
• 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.

Timing matters too. 6 states set the current rate for Q5144 in 2026 or later. A state that has not updated its rate in years will drift down the ranking as others raise theirs.

What a plan pays for Q5144 is negotiated privately, but the state decides how much room there is to negotiate. Here is how the rules break down across the 16 states.

In 6 states, the published rate binds plans: a floor, a pass-through or a state-set rate. In 8 states, plans negotiate and the published rate is a benchmark or out-of-network default. The rule for the remaining 2 states is not classified yet.

• Plans negotiate; the published rate applies out of network (8 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 (5 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.
• The state sets the plan rate (1 state). There is little to negotiate on price. Contracting is about network participation, authorization and billing terms.

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 Wisconsin managed care.

Q5144 is a HCPCS Level II temporary code in the physician & professional line, billed mostly by physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and other licensed practitioners. Q codes are temporary codes for drugs, biologicals, supplies and services. The unit depends on the code and is often a dose or an item.

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. Where a state publishes separate facility and non-facility amounts, the non-facility (office) amount is usually higher because the practice carries the overhead.

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.