How much does Medicare pay for CPT 36246?

Medicare allowed an average of $345.02 per service and paid $273.80 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $1887.55, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 36246?

Insertion of tube into abdominal, pelvic, or leg artery, initial second order branch. It was billed 5,895 times to 4,807 Medicare beneficiaries by 216 providers in 2024.

Does 36246 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $486.37 in an office setting and $193.49 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 36246 most?

Vascular Surgery, with 2,183 services from 112 clinicians. Next are Cardiology, Interventional Cardiology, Diagnostic Radiology.

CPT 36246

Insertion of tube into abdominal, pelvic, or leg artery, initial second order branch

$345.02Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 5,895 services

Providers submitted

$1887.55

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$345.02

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$273.80

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $1887.55 for this code and Medicare allowed $345.02 — 5.5× 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 $273.80 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $486.37
Hospital / facility: $193.49

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. 3,050 services were billed in an office setting and 2,845 in a facility.

Services: 5,895
Beneficiaries: 4,807
Providers billing it: 216
Total allowed: $2,033,893

What Medicare pays for CPT 36246

Across 5,895 services billed by 216 providers to 4,807 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $345.02 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 36246

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Vascular Surgery	2,183	1,980	$299.40	112
Cardiology	1,333	1,026	$389.29	33
Interventional Cardiology	791	560	$298.87	24
Diagnostic Radiology	648	565	$457.16	18
Interventional Radiology	256	225	$383.01	9
Nephrology	249	102	$420.48	1
Internal Medicine	131	80	$438.48	5
General Surgery	130	112	$268.48	6
Neurosurgery	75	67	$130.24	3
Thoracic Surgery	38	32	$347.20	2
General Practice	26	24	$138.27	1
Cardiac Surgery	22	21	$236.75	1
Peripheral Vascular Disease	13	13	$144.02	1

36246 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	1,535	$398.97	$284.81	26
Florida	695	$428.30	$344.48	15
Texas	592	$290.55	$232.57	24
New York	510	$409.47	$283.46	19
Illinois	254	$338.70	$248.58	7
Missouri	166	$207.53	$170.24	7
Maryland	165	$368.32	$273.41	9
Oklahoma	157	$375.50	$320.58	10
Pennsylvania	154	$216.30	$164.77	9
Massachusetts	144	$384.81	$282.46	7
Nevada	136	$361.61	$294.11	7
Michigan	133	$330.51	$259.94	8
Virginia	105	$287.81	$226.99	6
Indiana	96	$290.69	$252.73	2
New Jersey	90	$247.91	$179.54	4
Arizona	90	$271.23	$225.31	4
Georgia	89	$369.96	$311.85	5
Arkansas	75	$228.36	$200.01	5
Ohio	73	$313.48	$260.67	4
North Carolina	67	$268.01	$222.24	5
Iowa	64	$143.39	$121.81	3
Washington	55	$185.56	$149.11	4
Louisiana	55	$301.54	$257.23	3
Montana	51	$222.48	$175.10	3
Kentucky	46	$198.46	$165.57	2
West Virginia	46	$155.13	$122.16	2
South Dakota	36	$187.72	$155.33	3
Oregon	33	$168.18	$138.04	2
Tennessee	32	$220.34	$184.20	2
Kansas	27	$161.33	$131.45	2
District of Columbia	27	$255.16	$170.55	1
Nebraska	26	$195.81	$172.46	2
Guam	23	$745.63	$558.50	1
Alabama	21	$115.64	$100.51	1
New Hampshire	15	$255.22	$192.39	1
Connecticut	12	$207.01	$171.41	1

Related codes

36247Insertion of tube into abdominal$508.22
36248Insertion of tube into abdominal$94.94
36224Insertion of tube into internal neck artery for diagnosis or treatment$416.64
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
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.