How much does Medicare pay for CPT 36470?

Medicare allowed an average of $103.15 per service and paid $79.64 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $444.66, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 36470?

Injection of chemical agent into single incompetent vein. It was billed 7,920 times to 5,353 Medicare beneficiaries by 201 providers in 2024.

Does 36470 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $106.55 in an office setting and $31.37 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 36470 most?

General Surgery, with 1,561 services from 46 clinicians. Next are Vascular Surgery, Cardiology, Family Practice.

CPT 36470

Injection of chemical agent into single incompetent vein

$103.15Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 7,920 services

Providers submitted

$444.66

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$103.15

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$79.64

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $444.66 for this code and Medicare allowed $103.15 — 4.3× 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 $79.64 (77%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $106.55
Hospital / facility: $31.37

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. 7,562 services were billed in an office setting and 358 in a facility.

Services: 7,920
Beneficiaries: 5,353
Providers billing it: 201
Total allowed: $816,948

What Medicare pays for CPT 36470

Across 7,920 services billed by 201 providers to 5,353 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $103.15 per service. That is 1.5 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 36470

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
General Surgery	1,561	1,071	$109.89	46
Vascular Surgery	1,273	771	$101.94	34
Cardiology	837	533	$98.97	12
Family Practice	602	465	$111.03	17
Cardiac Surgery	576	392	$110.15	5
Emergency Medicine	575	468	$118.74	14
Interventional Cardiology	472	233	$117.94	8
Diagnostic Radiology	373	280	$78.36	10
Internal Medicine	324	212	$118.43	10
Nurse Practitioner	258	176	$62.70	8
Obstetrics & Gynecology	247	187	$99.20	5
Interventional Radiology	199	145	$98.64	9
Physician Assistant	185	132	$82.03	5
Thoracic Surgery	179	117	$110.33	7
Ambulatory Surgical Center	151	98	$44.49	6

36470 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	1,138	$111.09	$76.35	14
Florida	896	$93.93	$72.32	20
Illinois	807	$110.81	$84.20	21
New York	640	$129.14	$84.68	18
Arizona	576	$92.89	$75.87	9
Maryland	553	$115.09	$85.27	13
Texas	406	$89.81	$71.30	16
Indiana	379	$62.36	$53.21	11
New Jersey	348	$128.39	$87.68	12
Kentucky	276	$108.57	$84.40	2
Tennessee	255	$95.76	$82.32	4
Virginia	244	$106.29	$76.31	8
Missouri	219	$61.73	$53.20	6
Michigan	217	$93.51	$72.24	11
Georgia	127	$115.15	$85.72	4
Colorado	126	$93.91	$68.87	4
Pennsylvania	99	$112.12	$87.47	5
Maine	83	$138.89	$96.29	1
Montana	59	$102.35	$89.74	1
Alabama	54	$97.02	$84.52	2
West Virginia	54	$89.11	$66.50	2
Minnesota	52	$68.82	$55.49	3
Delaware	52	$112.52	$88.49	1
Ohio	46	$102.32	$85.90	2
North Carolina	46	$108.43	$87.19	2
South Carolina	27	$84.56	$68.49	1
Nebraska	23	$31.84	$25.19	1
Nevada	23	$112.01	$89.85	1
Connecticut	21	$120.35	$83.57	1
Iowa	19	$28.28	$21.15	1
District of Columbia	17	$131.28	$84.73	1
Oregon	13	$48.70	$41.97	1
Louisiana	13	$99.29	$86.82	1
Massachusetts	12	$94.01	$71.95	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
36466Injection of chemical agent into multiple incompetent veins of same le$1330.00
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.