How much does Medicare pay for CPT 36140?

Medicare allowed an average of $160.54 per service and paid $127.76 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $848.73, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 36140?

Insertion of needle or tube into artery of arm or leg. It was billed 5,684 times to 4,327 Medicare beneficiaries by 143 providers in 2024.

Does 36140 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $277.20 in an office setting and $52.41 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 36140 most?

Cardiology, with 1,918 services from 30 clinicians. Next are Vascular Surgery, Diagnostic Radiology, Interventional Cardiology.

CPT 36140

Insertion of needle or tube into artery of arm or leg

$160.54Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 5,684 services

Providers submitted

$848.73

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$160.54

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$127.76

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $848.73 for this code and Medicare allowed $160.54 — 5.3× 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 $127.76 (80%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $277.20
Hospital / facility: $52.41

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. 2,734 services were billed in an office setting and 2,950 in a facility.

Services: 5,684
Beneficiaries: 4,327
Providers billing it: 143
Total allowed: $912,509

What Medicare pays for CPT 36140

Across 5,684 services billed by 143 providers to 4,327 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $160.54 per service. That is 1.3 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 36140

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Cardiology	1,918	1,488	$152.85	30
Vascular Surgery	1,585	1,272	$151.63	42
Diagnostic Radiology	507	141	$282.92	4
Interventional Cardiology	343	282	$138.42	10
Interventional Radiology	297	186	$266.08	6
General Surgery	200	163	$151.09	5
Internal Medicine	141	128	$136.84	5
Pulmonary Disease	126	123	$74.40	7
Emergency Medicine	101	100	$93.69	5
Nurse Practitioner	100	94	$74.79	7
Critical Care (Intensivists)	79	75	$82.95	5
Physician Assistant	56	56	$76.44	4
Thoracic Surgery	46	40	$164.75	2
Neurosurgery	42	39	$42.29	2
Anesthesiology	42	42	$81.74	2

36140 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
California	2,251	$208.31	$144.78	28
Texas	722	$112.45	$90.23	18
New York	403	$91.60	$64.11	12
New Jersey	384	$131.57	$96.51	13
Florida	318	$159.61	$128.30	15
Michigan	283	$194.47	$161.62	6
Maryland	253	$172.93	$120.96	6
Pennsylvania	232	$74.28	$54.24	8
Arizona	182	$188.84	$155.85	3
Mississippi	80	$37.90	$34.26	2
Nevada	77	$157.52	$123.49	4
Hawaii	71	$38.69	$33.86	3
Massachusetts	64	$129.02	$96.44	2
Colorado	60	$80.48	$59.77	5
Tennessee	39	$160.55	$137.45	2
Oklahoma	29	$222.39	$196.47	1
Connecticut	26	$317.00	$204.98	1
Iowa	25	$38.67	$33.90	1
Missouri	24	$80.09	$59.17	2
Illinois	21	$43.48	$36.97	1
North Carolina	20	$48.74	$44.76	1
Rhode Island	17	$418.70	$334.57	1
South Carolina	16	$297.08	$220.66	1
Oregon	14	$42.00	$33.92	1
Washington	14	$83.55	$58.69	1
Idaho	12	$48.19	$42.27	1
Louisiana	12	$64.79	$51.27	1
Delaware	12	$72.02	$47.96	1
Indiana	12	$39.03	$33.84	1
West Virginia	11	$69.21	$49.20	1

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.