How much does Medicare pay for CPT 36010?

Medicare allowed an average of $215.77 per service and paid $171.84 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $1127.37, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 36010?

Insertion of tube into vena cava. It was billed 3,001 times to 2,500 Medicare beneficiaries by 118 providers in 2024.

Does 36010 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $349.38 in an office setting and $70.54 in a facility. The office rate is generally higher because the practice supplies the room, staff and equipment out of that single payment; in a hospital those are billed separately by the facility.

Which specialty bills 36010 most?

Vascular Surgery, with 1,093 services from 38 clinicians. Next are Cardiology, Interventional Cardiology, Diagnostic Radiology.

CPT 36010

Insertion of tube into vena cava

$215.77Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 3,001 services

Providers submitted

$1127.37

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$215.77

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$171.84

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $1127.37 for this code and Medicare allowed $215.77 — 5.2× less. That gap is normal and means nothing on its own: Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of what is billed, so the submitted figure describes a hospital chargemaster, not a price anyone paid. Of the allowed amount Medicare paid $171.84 (80%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $349.38
Hospital / facility: $70.54

The office rate is higher because the practice supplies the room, staff and equipment out of that payment. In a hospital the facility bills those separately, so the clinician's share is smaller — the total cost to Medicare is usually higher, not lower. 1,563 services were billed in an office setting and 1,438 in a facility.

Services: 3,001
Beneficiaries: 2,500
Providers billing it: 118
Total allowed: $647,526

What Medicare pays for CPT 36010

Across 3,001 services billed by 118 providers to 2,500 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $215.77 per service. That is 1.2 services per beneficiary, so this is a code patients typically receive more than once. The allowed amount is the figure that matters: it is what Medicare and the patient together owe, set by the fee schedule and adjusted for local practice costs. What a provider chose to submit has no bearing on it.

Who bills 36010

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Vascular Surgery	1,093	931	$198.05	38
Cardiology	589	424	$285.66	16
Interventional Cardiology	293	257	$206.39	14
Diagnostic Radiology	236	184	$184.34	13
Interventional Radiology	160	140	$271.35	10
General Surgery	135	113	$247.34	5
Internal Medicine	123	121	$277.02	3
Pulmonary Disease	113	110	$102.21	7
Anesthesiology	74	74	$95.85	4
Peripheral Vascular Disease	62	37	$174.64	2
Nephrology	35	35	$327.77	1
Critical Care (Intensivists)	26	25	$101.63	1
Thoracic Surgery	24	12	$67.37	1
Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology	15	14	$56.71	1
Obstetrics & Gynecology	12	12	$64.25	1

36010 reimbursement by state

Two different numbers. Allowed is what Medicare actually allowed in that state, which includes the local practice-cost adjustment. Standardized strips that geographic adjustment out of the payment, so it is the column to use when comparing states — a difference there reflects how the code was billed, not what it costs to run a practice locally.

State	Services	Allowed	Standardized pmt	Providers
Florida	543	$300.51	$244.70	17
California	522	$185.17	$127.64	16
Maryland	324	$210.42	$151.58	9
Texas	302	$196.15	$151.70	15
New York	214	$178.35	$115.87	10
Michigan	190	$240.93	$189.86	7
Indiana	92	$177.10	$159.95	3
Tennessee	74	$226.33	$198.86	3
Alabama	67	$184.20	$172.40	4
Arkansas	59	$62.30	$51.82	2
Arizona	56	$153.59	$133.55	3
New Jersey	51	$258.00	$177.46	3
New Mexico	50	$216.84	$184.98	2
Louisiana	47	$244.82	$221.39	1
Colorado	41	$601.55	$442.27	3
Georgia	41	$282.84	$243.61	2
Oklahoma	37	$56.58	$48.25	2
Illinois	35	$84.33	$64.46	2
Mississippi	30	$50.81	$42.75	2
South Carolina	27	$318.26	$214.65	1
Delaware	25	$402.56	$322.91	1
District of Columbia	23	$73.67	$50.24	1
South Dakota	22	$54.50	$46.98	1
North Carolina	21	$241.50	$206.99	1
West Virginia	19	$107.71	$76.06	1
Minnesota	19	$58.89	$44.98	1
Missouri	16	$459.47	$355.64	1
Idaho	15	$53.68	$46.75	1
Ohio	15	$74.98	$57.77	1
Nevada	12	$54.61	$44.53	1
Washington	12	$51.20	$41.31	1

Related codes

36005Injection for x-ray imaging procedure into vein of arm or leg$134.97
36012Insertion of tube into vein$468.62
36011Insertion of tube into vein$425.13

Billing this code is not the same as earning it

An allowed amount is revenue to a practice, not income to a clinician. It funds staff, premises, equipment and supplies before anyone is paid. What clinicians actually earn is published separately by the Department of Labor, and what industry pays them is published separately again by CMS — this site carries both.

What doctors are paid →·Look up a clinician →·All procedure codes →

Where this comes from. CMS Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners, by Provider and Service, 2024. It covers fee-for-service Original Medicare Part B only — not Medicare Advantage, not Medicaid, and not commercial insurance, which typically pays more for the same code.

How it is averaged. CMS publishes one average per provider per code. Every figure here is re-weighted by the number of services, so a clinician who billed the code 4,000 times counts 4,000 times more than one who billed it twice. CMS also suppresses any provider-code pair with fewer than 11 beneficiaries, so low-volume practice is missing from these totals by design.