Place of Service Lookup
Every CMS place of service code, searchable by number or by plain words — office, urgent care, ambulance, telehealth — with what each code actually means and the rate it triggers.
The two-digit place of service (POS) code in box 24B tells the payer where the service happened — and it drives which fee schedule rate applies. A wrong POS is one of the cheapest denials to earn and one of the easiest to prevent. Search the full CMS list by code or keyword, or use the telehealth chooser below.
Search place of service codes
Telehealth: which POS?
Why the POS code moves money
Medicare and most commercial payers price professional services at two rates: a non-facility rate (higher, because the practice bears the overhead — POS 11, 10, 49 and similar) and a facility rate (lower, because the facility bears it — POS 21, 22, 23, 24 and similar). Billing an office visit with a facility POS quietly cuts the payment on every claim; billing a hospital-based service with POS 11 invites a denial or a later recoupment. The POS also interacts with telehealth rules: POS 02 and 10 are what mark a claim as telehealth in the first place, alongside modifiers 95 and 93.
Reading your result
- 02 vs 10 — the single most confused pair since 2022. The deciding question is where the patient was: home means 10, anywhere else means 02.
- 19 vs 22 — both are hospital outpatient departments; 19 is off the hospital campus, 22 is on it. The distinction follows the department's provider-based status, not the map.
- 99 — a last resort. If a real code describes the location, use it; payers read routine 99s as carelessness.
POS errors usually live in the EHR's location defaults, not in the biller's head — one wrong default repeats on thousands of claims. Checking those defaults is part of the claim-scrubbing in our claims submission service.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between POS 02 and POS 10?
Both are telehealth. POS 10 is used when the patient is in their home during the visit; POS 02 covers telehealth where the patient is anywhere else, such as another facility. The distinction matters because Medicare generally pays POS 10 at the higher non-facility rate and POS 02 at the facility rate.
Which POS pays more, facility or non-facility?
The non-facility rate is higher because it includes the practice’s overhead — rent, staff, equipment. Facility settings (hospital inpatient, outpatient departments, the ER, an ASC) are paid the lower facility rate because the facility bills its own share separately. Choosing the wrong side of that line is a direct payment error.
Is this the complete CMS place of service list?
It includes every assigned code in the current CMS set, from 01 Pharmacy through 99 Other Place of Service — 51 assigned codes in total. Some two-digit numbers (28–30, 35–40, 43–48, 59 and others) are unassigned by CMS and intentionally absent. Code 27, Outreach Site/Street, was added effective October 1, 2023.