How much does Medicare pay for CPT 36475?

Medicare allowed an average of $1015.19 per service and paid $803.83 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $4848.93, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 36475?

Destruction of first incompetent vein of arm or leg using radiofrequency and imaging guidance. It was billed 70,433 times to 38,377 Medicare beneficiaries by 1,223 providers in 2024.

Does 36475 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $1042.48 in an office setting and $612.26 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 36475 most?

Vascular Surgery, with 22,082 services from 425 clinicians. Next are General Surgery, Cardiology, Interventional Cardiology.

CPT 36475

Destruction of first incompetent vein of arm or leg using radiofrequency and imaging guidance

$1015.19Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 70,433 services

Providers submitted

$4848.93

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$1015.19

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$803.83

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $4848.93 for this code and Medicare allowed $1015.19 — 4.8× 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 $803.83 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $1042.48
Hospital / facility: $612.26

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. 65,965 services were billed in an office setting and 4,468 in a facility.

Services: 70,433
Beneficiaries: 38,377
Providers billing it: 1,223
Total allowed: $71,502,877

What Medicare pays for CPT 36475

Across 70,433 services billed by 1,223 providers to 38,377 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $1015.19 per service. That is 1.8 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 36475

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Vascular Surgery	22,082	13,219	$1015.56	425
General Surgery	11,777	6,052	$999.53	164
Cardiology	8,785	4,901	$1004.14	188
Interventional Cardiology	4,530	2,671	$954.78	104
Interventional Radiology	4,078	1,815	$957.47	52
Diagnostic Radiology	3,802	1,807	$998.62	46
Family Practice	2,650	1,344	$971.39	43
Internal Medicine	2,035	1,003	$1117.60	30
Emergency Medicine	1,755	967	$1071.70	26
Ambulatory Surgical Center	1,200	641	$1559.13	21
Cardiac Surgery	1,130	632	$1034.93	14
Thoracic Surgery	936	436	$1017.24	18
General Practice	906	427	$1033.28	11
Peripheral Vascular Disease	848	413	$969.26	9
Physician Assistant	806	399	$917.74	16

36475 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	11,989	$983.66	$804.74	144
Florida	9,205	$1013.23	$809.42	158
California	8,233	$1157.84	$789.23	133
Arizona	4,437	$996.99	$812.76	58
New York	3,536	$1136.43	$789.22	77
New Jersey	3,113	$1147.11	$808.56	57
Tennessee	2,747	$913.57	$808.52	39
Maryland	2,614	$1076.99	$804.92	37
Georgia	2,111	$996.14	$824.58	46
North Carolina	1,998	$939.83	$802.21	39
Illinois	1,796	$997.96	$781.42	35
Ohio	1,725	$902.15	$749.29	29
Virginia	1,686	$966.71	$765.96	39
Connecticut	1,621	$1146.44	$820.40	34
Michigan	1,349	$960.13	$770.38	32
South Carolina	972	$929.88	$795.35	21
Louisiana	915	$1000.47	$831.08	13
Pennsylvania	825	$981.97	$794.17	25
Colorado	798	$1049.63	$802.10	19
Indiana	771	$886.90	$773.57	16
Massachusetts	717	$992.53	$751.42	21
Nevada	627	$1038.82	$849.17	9
Kentucky	551	$979.93	$810.44	4
Missouri	543	$773.80	$664.69	13
Montana	471	$1027.59	$834.07	5
Iowa	415	$960.86	$829.40	7
Wisconsin	414	$882.88	$752.08	5
Alabama	393	$585.96	$506.75	11
Oregon	390	$1040.90	$822.95	9
Hawaii	366	$1077.23	$782.23	4
New Mexico	326	$958.46	$785.96	4
Arkansas	313	$782.64	$717.09	6
Kansas	303	$629.18	$538.10	6
Washington	285	$1089.31	$826.03	7
Oklahoma	246	$555.80	$495.80	9
West Virginia	229	$901.01	$749.58	6
Utah	202	$805.51	$666.82	10
Minnesota	199	$961.63	$771.84	6
Nebraska	194	$662.94	$575.53	6
Rhode Island	149	$1079.61	$822.63	5
Mississippi	147	$679.75	$606.28	4
Wyoming	133	$1031.34	$809.76	2
Delaware	121	$968.74	$776.39	4
Idaho	81	$821.94	$711.35	3
South Dakota	73	$1005.49	$836.74	2
District of Columbia	55	$1273.30	$822.10	1
Maine	31	$1093.37	$819.84	2
Vermont	18	$234.49	$190.13	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
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
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.