S8451 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 S8451, 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. 2 of the 5 states list more than one rate for S8451, 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. None of the 5 schedules prints a separate unit for S8451, so each amount is a flat payment for one service as the code defines it.
• Per hour. S8451 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 S8451, 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 S8451 run from $12.76 in Minnesota to $354.81 in Iowa, a 27.8x gap in the same unit. Half the states pay more than the median of $16.05 and half pay less. The usual reasons for a spread like this in equipment & supplies rates:

• A single code can carry separate purchase, rental and used-equipment amounts, and states publish different subsets of them.
• Some items are priced individually from the manufacturer's price or the supplier's invoice, so fewer states publish a fixed fee.
• Many states set equipment and supply fees as a percentage of the Medicare DMEPOS fee schedule, at different percentages and from different years.

Timing matters too. 1 state set the current rate for S8451 in 2026 or later, while 2 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.

No managed-care plan publishes what it pays for S8451. What is public is the rule each state's plan contracts set, and that rule decides how much the published rate matters when you contract with a plan.

In 2 states, the published rate binds plans: a floor, a pass-through or a state-set rate. In 2 states, plans negotiate and the published rate is a benchmark or out-of-network default. The rule for the remaining 1 state is not classified yet.

• Plans negotiate; the published rate applies out of network (2 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.
• The state sets the plan rate (1 state). There is little to negotiate on price. Contracting is about network participation, authorization and billing terms.
• Plans must pay at least the published rate (1 state). 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.

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 Iowa managed care.

S8451 is a HCPCS Level II temporary national code in the equipment & supplies line, billed mostly by durable medical equipment suppliers, orthotists, prosthetists and pharmacies. S codes were created for private payers and are widely used by Medicaid programs for services Medicare does not cover, such as home nursing and home infusion. Units range from 15 minutes to a day.

Pricing modifiers decide which amount applies: NU for a new purchase, RR for a monthly rental and UE for used equipment. Units follow the code: per item, per pair, per box or per month of rental, so a per-unit comparison only holds when the states use the same unit.

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.