Data Analysis

Medicare Costs by Specialty in North Carolina

Medicare reimbursement rates vary significantly across medical specialties. This analysis examines average Medicare payments per service for providers in North Carolina, ranked by reimbursement level. Understanding these differences helps contextualize specialty costs and resource allocation across the healthcare system.

Data source: CMS Open Payments + Medicare Part B Coverage: 2023–2023 Providers analyzed: 511 State: North Carolina

511

Providers Analyzed

With at least one payment on record

$138

Avg Medicare Payment

Per service across all procedures

ⓘ

Context: Industry payments to physicians are legally required to be disclosed under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act. Receiving payments does not imply wrongdoing. Payments may reflect consulting expertise, research participation, or speaking engagements. This data is provided to support transparency, not to render clinical judgments.

Average Medicare Payment by Specialty — North Carolina

CMS Open Payments

#	Specialty	Avg Medicare Payment	Providers	Total Services
1	Dentist - General Practice	$327	4	1,377
2	Phlebology Physician	$206	2	1,435
3	Thoracic Surgery	$178	57	15,859
4	Transplant Surgery Physician	$174	8	2,655
5	Neurological Surgery	$157	145	50,104
6	Orthopaedic Surgery of the Spine Physician	$153	32	33,359
7	Epilepsy Physician	$143	2	355
8	MOHS-Micrographic Surgery Physician	$141	26	82,487
9	Hospice and Palliative Medicine (Emergency Medicine) Physician	$130	1	11
10	Cornea and External Diseases Specialist Physician	$123	6	8,458
11	Aerospace Medicine Physician	$120	1	83
12	Surgical Oncology Physician	$120	27	5,454
13	Vascular Surgery Physician	$118	73	50,625
14	Neurocritical Care Physician	$118	13	4,044
15	Case Manager/Care Coordinator	$118	1	889
16	Pediatric Endocrinology	$117	1	31
17	Plastic Surgery	$115	52	24,898
18	Personal Emergency Response Attendant	$111	1	305
19	Neurology with Special Qualifications in Child Neurology Physician	$110	7	1,709
20	Orthopaedic Trauma Physician	$109	11	2,746
21	Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychologist	$109	1	240
22	Addiction (Substance Use Disorder) Psychologist	$107	2	680
23	Pediatric Infectious Diseases Physician	$106	1	75
24	Procedural Dermatology Physician	$105	9	17,080
25	Pediatric Gastroenterology Physician	$104	1	154
26	Critical Care Medicine (Anesthesiology) Physician	$104	18	3,356
27	Surgery of the Hand (Plastic Surgery) Physician	$103	2	323
28	Cognitive & Behavioral Psychologist	$103	2	1,164
29	Medical Specialty Clinic/Center	$102	1	239
30	Obesity Medicine	$101	4	379

State payment context — North Carolina

CMS Open Payments

Across 51,950 North Carolina providers with at least one disclosed industry payment over 2018–2024, the median provider received $333 in total payments, compared with a national median of $339 across 1,571,086 paid providers.

North Carolina accounts for 3.2% of the $16,205,257,917 in industry payments recorded nationwide in this database, and its per-provider median runs below the national benchmark.

Top specialties by median industry payment — North Carolina

Specialty	Median per provider	Providers paid	Total payments
Adult Reconstructive Orthopaedic Surgery Physician	$15,069	30	$35,851,438
Orthopaedic Surgery of the Spine Physician	$14,181	37	$5,000,275
Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology Physician	$12,239	35	$1,360,806
Orthopaedic Hand Surgery Physician	$4,738	40	$1,327,183
Interventional Cardiology	$4,668	82	$2,598,042

Industry payments in North Carolina by year

Year	Total payments	Providers paid	Transactions
2018	$73,812,642	18,359	343,817
2019	$78,821,910	18,331	326,884
2020	$50,928,705	14,377	171,803
2021	$67,122,547	25,785	408,240
2022	$76,699,881	29,190	474,366
2023	$87,724,108	31,308	520,130
2024	$88,044,650	32,762	534,543

Methodology Average Medicare payment per service calculated from Medicare Part B Utilization data for providers licensed in North Carolina. Only specialties with at least one recorded procedure are included. Average reflects the mean of per-service payment amounts across all procedures within each specialty grouping, not total expenditure. Data source: CMS Medicare Part B Utilization, accessed via doctransparency.com database.