How much does Medicare pay for CPT 36224?

Medicare allowed an average of $416.64 per service and paid $329.65 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $5181.52, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 36224?

Insertion of tube into internal neck artery for diagnosis or treatment with review by radiologist. It was billed 19,496 times to 17,216 Medicare beneficiaries by 712 providers in 2024.

Does 36224 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $2804.34 in an office setting and $379.70 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 36224 most?

Neurosurgery, with 9,764 services from 335 clinicians. Next are Neurology, Diagnostic Radiology, Interventional Radiology.

CPT 36224

Insertion of tube into internal neck artery for diagnosis or treatment with review by radiologist

$416.64Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 19,496 services

Providers submitted

$5181.52

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$416.64

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$329.65

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $5181.52 for this code and Medicare allowed $416.64 — 12.4× 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 $329.65 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $2804.34
Hospital / facility: $379.70

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. 297 services were billed in an office setting and 19,199 in a facility.

Services: 19,496
Beneficiaries: 17,216
Providers billing it: 712
Total allowed: $8,122,813

What Medicare pays for CPT 36224

Across 19,496 services billed by 712 providers to 17,216 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $416.64 per service. 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 36224

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Neurosurgery	9,764	8,486	$405.30	335
Neurology	3,947	3,524	$396.65	152
Diagnostic Radiology	3,353	3,014	$424.48	136
Interventional Radiology	1,943	1,754	$447.98	71
Neuropsychiatry	143	118	$367.74	3
Vascular Surgery	112	110	$276.41	4
Undefined Physician type	49	44	$1815.15	3
Critical Care (Intensivists)	40	37	$375.53	1
Cardiology	38	37	$2022.47	2
General Surgery	31	24	$389.56	1
Pediatric Medicine	26	21	$357.48	1
Internal Medicine	25	23	$367.50	1
Psychiatry	14	13	$508.51	1
Interventional Cardiology	11	11	$376.77	1

36224 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	2,545	$455.60	$346.56	87
Florida	1,772	$415.28	$294.06	66
Texas	1,258	$372.45	$290.62	51
New York	1,216	$413.78	$278.57	46
Pennsylvania	1,030	$367.32	$289.97	35
Illinois	1,019	$416.09	$299.25	31
Virginia	723	$378.17	$298.63	23
Ohio	655	$357.36	$288.80	28
Washington	651	$760.02	$588.84	17
Georgia	578	$504.99	$399.76	20
Massachusetts	546	$391.69	$299.89	19
New Jersey	540	$425.40	$310.99	20
Tennessee	462	$492.24	$444.90	20
North Carolina	451	$492.94	$416.71	18
Maryland	427	$416.48	$319.83	13
South Carolina	396	$338.79	$277.83	10
Indiana	378	$345.85	$291.99	13
Arizona	354	$436.86	$362.78	13
Connecticut	321	$390.81	$278.72	10
Missouri	319	$405.19	$326.80	14
Kentucky	303	$350.48	$285.12	10
Michigan	276	$418.92	$303.60	17
Kansas	262	$370.01	$318.59	8
Oklahoma	215	$327.51	$276.33	8
Wisconsin	215	$328.52	$284.06	10
Alabama	201	$357.51	$319.49	8
Arkansas	200	$375.84	$348.99	8
Nevada	190	$361.19	$301.01	6
Iowa	182	$304.97	$261.87	6
Louisiana	178	$353.73	$288.47	7
Minnesota	173	$331.51	$294.83	9
Hawaii	153	$373.65	$307.60	4
Colorado	153	$359.16	$274.55	9
District of Columbia	150	$411.25	$292.31	5
Mississippi	140	$593.22	$527.42	6
Utah	137	$358.64	$290.89	6
South Dakota	132	$325.45	$288.83	3
Oregon	102	$395.58	$314.97	5
North Dakota	84	$371.11	$316.62	2
Maine	66	$385.71	$320.11	3
Nebraska	50	$285.67	$263.58	3
Montana	49	$291.35	$247.02	2
Vermont	47	$364.89	$320.48	2
Delaware	46	$373.62	$308.67	2
Idaho	44	$305.24	$274.94	2
West Virginia	34	$407.66	$317.65	2
New Hampshire	26	$389.53	$284.26	2
New Mexico	17	$224.27	$228.35	1
Rhode Island	17	$324.85	$259.39	1
Alaska	13	$538.10	$365.92	1

Related codes

36247Insertion of tube into abdominal$508.22
36248Insertion of tube into abdominal$94.94
36226Insertion of tube into brain artery for diagnosis or treatment$286.02
36215Insertion of tube into chest or arm artery$311.96
36223Insertion of tube into intracranial artery for diagnosis or treatment$304.28
36227Insertion of tube into external neck artery for diagnosis or treatment$157.57
36245Insertion of tube into abdominal$406.16
36246Insertion of tube into abdominal$345.02
36225Insertion of tube into chest artery for diagnosis or treatment$253.70
36200Insertion of tube into aorta$221.32

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.