U.S. physician groups billed Medicare about $1,017 for the average emergency-department visit in 2024 — and were paid about $113
The services-weighted average of $1,017 is pulled up by a right tail: the median group lists about $909, while the highest-listing tenth list about $1,593 or more.
Charged about 9.0 times what it paid: for the average emergency-department visit in 2024, these groups billed about $1,017 and Medicare paid about $113.
The gap is a list price set against a fee schedule. Submitted charges are amounts each group sets on its own. Medicare pays its allowed amount for the visit, whatever the list price.
Medicare is one payer. The submitted charge is a list price, and a higher one does not raise Medicare's payment. The gap measures a list price against one payer's schedule, from Medicare claims only. It says nothing about what any other payer pays.
This is the physician's fee, not the facility's. It covers the professional service for the visit itself, not the hospital's separate facility bill for the same encounter.
A record of what was billed and what Medicare paid — not a verdict on price, value, or fairness. The charge is a list amount each group sets; the payment is the fee schedule's fixed amount.
The average submitted charge and the average Medicare payment per emergency-department visit (the physician's professional service), across named physician groups, in 2024.
Not a total-spending figure, not the hospital facility charge and not all-payer.