Find policies, billing codes, payers, states, and providers
CPT 96133: Neuropsychological Testing, Additional Hour
CPT code 96133 designates additional hours of face-to-face neuropsychological testing, interpretation, and report preparation performed by a physician or other qualified healthcare professional. It is billed in addition to the primary initial testing code and captures extended, provider-level time spent administering tests and discussing results with patients and caregivers — activities that support diagnosis and care planning for cognitive, memory, and neurobehavioral conditions. Nationally, accurate use of this CPT code affects clinical documentation, coding compliance, and payment for specialty behavioral and neurocognitive services.
Key payers in this analysis include Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna Health, UnitedHealthcare, and Medicare. Readers will find a concise overview of the code’s clinical purpose and service setting, associated billing relationships to related test administration and evaluation codes, commonly reported modifiers, and linked provider taxonomies. The publication also summarizes typical ICD-10 diagnostic contexts where extended neuropsychological testing may be relevant.
This summary equips clinicians, coding professionals, and administrators with a clear reference to the code’s intended use, the payer landscape covered, and the clinical scenarios in which additional provider time for testing and interpretation is commonly reported.
Customize your policy alerts
Sign up for cpt 96133 policy alerts
Get alerted when payer policies referencing 96133 are released or updated.
Monitor payer policy activity
Billing Code Overview
CPT code 96133 describes neuropsychological testing administration and interpretation services provided face-to-face by a physician or other qualified healthcare professional. This code is reported for each additional hour the provider spends administering tests, interpreting results, and preparing the report, including time spent in discussion with the patient and family members or caregivers.
Service type: Neuropsychological testing and evaluation by a physician or other qualified healthcare professional
Typical site of service: Outpatient clinic or specialty neuropsychology/psychiatry practice; can also occur in inpatient settings where face-to-face testing is performed
National Reimbursement Benchmarks
Medicare’s mean allowed rate of $101 sits below BUCA’s average commercial mean of $126.20 for CPT 96133, indicating that commercial contracts on average reimburse meaningfully higher than the Medicare baseline. The median for Medicare is $99 with an interquartile band of $97–$102, a narrow central spread that contrasts with broader commercial variability.
Assessing dispersion using the interquartile range (P75 minus P25) shows variation across payers: Aetna’s IQR is $40.00, Blue Cross Blue Shield’s IQR is $45.60, BUCA’s IQR is $46.70, Cigna’s IQR is $60.00, and UnitedHealth Group’s IQR is $85.00. UnitedHealth Group exhibits the widest central dispersion and Medicare the tightest IQR at $5.00, highlighting the difference between a concentrated Medicare distribution and more heterogeneous commercial contract rates.