How much does Medicare pay for CPT 36466?

Medicare allowed an average of $1330.00 per service and paid $1053.34 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $5330.86, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 36466?

Injection of chemical agent into multiple incompetent veins of same leg using ultrasound guidance. It was billed 16,847 times to 8,999 Medicare beneficiaries by 282 providers in 2024.

Does 36466 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $1340.58 in an office setting and $265.99 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 36466 most?

Vascular Surgery, with 4,498 services from 75 clinicians. Next are General Surgery, Interventional Radiology, Diagnostic Radiology.

CPT 36466

Injection of chemical agent into multiple incompetent veins of same leg using ultrasound guidance

$1330.00Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 16,847 services

Providers submitted

$5330.86

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$1330.00

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$1053.34

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $5330.86 for this code and Medicare allowed $1330.00 — 4.0× 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 $1053.34 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $1340.58
Hospital / facility: $265.99

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. 16,681 services were billed in an office setting and 166 in a facility.

Services: 16,847
Beneficiaries: 8,999
Providers billing it: 282
Total allowed: $22,406,510

What Medicare pays for CPT 36466

Across 16,847 services billed by 282 providers to 8,999 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $1330.00 per service. That is 1.9 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 36466

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Vascular Surgery	4,498	2,417	$1358.49	75
General Surgery	2,247	1,262	$1255.84	45
Interventional Radiology	1,915	856	$1281.02	24
Diagnostic Radiology	1,759	911	$1355.94	22
Cardiology	1,153	620	$1434.39	19
Internal Medicine	864	369	$1351.49	17
Emergency Medicine	852	526	$1388.54	13
Obstetrics & Gynecology	615	338	$1377.04	7
Thoracic Surgery	486	222	$1349.19	7
Family Practice	471	269	$1288.69	11
Cardiac Surgery	468	281	$1135.95	6
Interventional Cardiology	389	284	$1351.15	9
General Practice	379	192	$1417.42	5
Nurse Practitioner	136	94	$921.05	6
Peripheral Vascular Disease	96	71	$1210.68	3

36466 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
Texas	3,264	$1283.48	$1054.98	39
California	2,320	$1437.62	$1023.40	31
Maryland	1,182	$1430.59	$1052.19	19
New York	1,122	$1523.96	$1037.18	23
Tennessee	1,006	$1134.82	$1047.48	14
New Jersey	931	$1521.70	$1051.18	18
Florida	890	$1286.92	$1039.23	21
Pennsylvania	586	$1266.76	$1050.54	10
Virginia	564	$1336.16	$1046.12	9
Georgia	550	$1224.03	$1041.29	13
Colorado	530	$1496.37	$1136.85	5
North Carolina	528	$1187.03	$1045.82	10
Illinois	470	$1350.79	$1049.97	13
Arizona	448	$1155.96	$1002.60	10
Ohio	390	$1250.99	$1072.72	6
Missouri	363	$1101.85	$1050.39	4
Indiana	282	$1198.51	$1045.01	4
Iowa	203	$1201.29	$1034.62	4
Louisiana	199	$1226.84	$1046.75	2
Michigan	164	$1486.66	$1207.45	4
Alabama	134	$1131.31	$1049.32	2
Nevada	107	$1224.76	$1042.23	2
Kentucky	102	$1290.61	$1044.97	2
Connecticut	94	$1429.80	$1040.61	2
Arkansas	80	$1124.20	$1046.77	3
Utah	72	$1237.68	$1046.93	3
Montana	53	$1182.29	$1043.24	1
Oklahoma	48	$1179.32	$1021.27	2
Oregon	38	$1347.59	$1051.67	1
West Virginia	30	$1429.74	$1043.00	1
South Dakota	28	$1307.26	$1049.96	1
Massachusetts	24	$1555.86	$1038.25	1
New Mexico	23	$1459.51	$1047.43	1
Minnesota	22	$1336.25	$1051.47	1

Related codes

36415Insertion of needle into vein for collection of blood sample$8.49
36465Injection of chemical agent into single incompetent vein of leg$1256.40
36410Insertion of needle into vein (3 years or older)$16.89
36471Injection of chemical agent into multiple incompetent veins of leg$187.64
36475Destruction of first incompetent vein of arm or leg$1015.19
36482Chemical destruction of first incompetent vein of arm or leg$1603.82
36478Laser destruction of incompetent vein of arm or leg$907.22
36470Injection of chemical agent into single incompetent vein$103.15
36430Transfusion of blood or blood products$42.77
36479Laser destruction of incompetent veins of arm or leg$285.92
36476Destruction of subsequent incompetent veins of arm or leg$268.55

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.