What Medicare pays for the screen itself: about nineteen dollars
In CMS's 2026 fee file the annual depression screen code carries 0.56 relative value units at a $33.4009 conversion factor: about $18.70 nationally. The brief assessment code is about $5. A twenty-minute visit is about $95.
We have not finished checking this source. No judgement either way. how we score evidence
Caveat on this rating: Actual payment varies by locality (the GPCI) and by whether the QPP conversion factor applies; these are national base amounts computed by us. The fee is the direct payment only and says nothing about MIPS adjustments or plan-level risk payments.
Significant findings
The question people actually ask is what the screen pays. The answer is in CMS's own fee schedule file, and it is small. In the 2026 relative value file, code G0444, "Depression screen annual", carries a work value of 0.18 and a total non-facility value of 0.56 relative value units. Code 96127, "Brief emotional/behav assmt", the code used for a questionnaire scored at a visit, carries 0.15. For comparison, the annual alcohol screen, G0442, also carries 0.56, and a standard twenty-minute established-patient visit, 99213, carries 2.85.
The same file states the 2026 conversion factor: 33.4009. Multiplying is our arithmetic, not the file's, and it gives national amounts before geographic adjustment: about $18.70 for the annual depression screen, about $5.01 for a brief behavioural assessment, about $18.70 for the alcohol screen, and about $95.19 for the visit itself.
Worth asking
Nineteen dollars is not why the screen happens. The screen happens because a quality measure counts it, and because in Medicare Advantage the diagnosis it leads to changes what a plan is paid. The fee is real and it is the smallest number on this page. When people say doctors make money from the PHQ-9, this is the direct part, and it is about the price of lunch.
Source
Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Relative Value File, RVU26A (2026, updated 29 December 2025) — Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2025)
How this was scored
- Study design
- not recorded
- Funding
- not recorded
- Published in
- not recorded
- Sample size
- not recorded
- Preregistered
- not recorded
- Conflicts disclosed
- not recorded
- Independent of proponent
- not recorded
- Retracted
- No
We have not finished checking this source, so there is no scoring to show yet. “We have not checked this yet” and “this is disputed” are different statements, so no scored band is shown rather than a low one.
Read the full scoring rubric, including what it can't tell you.
Published September 17, 2026.
Questions
How strong is the evidence behind this?
veisund rates this source "not yet assessed". We have not finished checking this source. No judgement either way. One caveat travels with that badge: Actual payment varies by locality (the GPCI) and by whether the QPP conversion factor applies; these are national base amounts computed by us. The fee is the direct payment only and says nothing about MIPS adjustments or plan-level risk payments. The score is calculated from recorded facts about the source — study design, funding, publication venue, sample size, preregistration — not typed in by an editor.
What is the source for this?
Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Relative Value File, RVU26A (2026, updated 29 December 2025) — Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2025). The full source is linked on this page so you can read it yourself.
Is this medical advice?
This is information to bring to your prescriber, not medical advice and not a reason to change anything on your own. Nothing here is an instruction to stop or reduce a medication. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.
This is information to bring to your prescriber, not medical advice and not a reason to change anything on your own. Nothing here is an instruction to stop or reduce a medication. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.