S9470 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 S9470, 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. 15 of the 23 states list more than one rate for S9470, 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 23 states, 1 publish S9470 per hour, 1 per visit and 1 per 15 min, and 20 schedules print no unit at all (a flat amount per service).
• Per hour. Time-based units are converted to an hour of service (four 15-minute units make an hour). 2 of the 23 states bill S9470 by time.
• 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 S9470, 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 S9470 run from $12.08 in California to $150.00 in District of Columbia, a 12.4x gap in the same unit. Half the states pay more than the median of $26.66 and half pay less. The usual reasons for a spread like this in therapy (PT/OT/speech) rates:

• Children's therapy is driven by the EPSDT benefit, so some states maintain separate pediatric rates or programs.
• Visit limits, prior authorization and annual caps vary by state and change how much a single code is worth to a practice.
• States pay therapy by CPT code, but many pay therapy assistants a reduced percentage and some pay differently in outpatient hospital, private practice and home settings.

Timing matters too. 3 states set the current rate for S9470 in 2026 or later, while 12 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 S9470, the public signal is the rule each state sets for its plans, recorded on each rate above.

In 5 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. In 4 states, the service is paid outside the plans or through a state-directed payment. The rule for the remaining 6 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.
• Paid by the state, outside the plans (4 states). 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 District of Columbia managed care.

S9470 is a HCPCS Level II temporary national code in the therapy (PT/OT/speech) line, billed mostly by physical, occupational and speech therapists and therapy practices. 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.

Medicare applies a rule for counting timed minutes into units; Medicaid programs may follow it or set their own, so check the state's therapy manual. Many treatment codes are timed in 15-minute units, while evaluations and re-evaluations are billed once per session.

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.