How much does Medicare pay for CPT 36479?

Medicare allowed an average of $285.92 per service and paid $227.06 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $1064.73, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 36479?

Laser destruction of incompetent veins of arm or leg using imaging guidance, subsequent. It was billed 2,647 times to 1,504 Medicare beneficiaries by 42 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 36479 most?

General Surgery, with 790 services from 9 clinicians. Next are Anesthesiology, Vascular Surgery, Family Practice.

CPT 36479

Laser destruction of incompetent veins of arm or leg using imaging guidance, subsequent

$285.92Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 2,647 services

Providers submitted

$1064.73

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$285.92

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$227.06

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $1064.73 for this code and Medicare allowed $285.92 — 3.7× 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 $227.06 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 2,647
Beneficiaries: 1,504
Providers billing it: 42
Total allowed: $756,830

What Medicare pays for CPT 36479

Across 2,647 services billed by 42 providers to 1,504 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $285.92 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 36479

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
General Surgery	790	489	$275.85	9
Anesthesiology	497	225	$255.18	3
Vascular Surgery	462	229	$316.36	8
Family Practice	181	111	$294.91	3
Cardiology	168	73	$294.11	3
Diagnostic Radiology	116	69	$308.26	3
Interventional Radiology	100	66	$280.91	2
Thoracic Surgery	84	58	$280.54	2
General Practice	81	56	$336.35	2
Cardiac Surgery	46	38	$274.12	2
Interventional Cardiology	40	26	$312.26	1
Internal Medicine	35	27	$301.94	2
Obstetrics & Gynecology	26	19	$258.14	1
Podiatry	21	18	$289.84	1

36479 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	524	$281.03	$234.41	9
Florida	369	$290.69	$234.04	7
Mississippi	344	$250.49	$233.91	2
Arizona	328	$272.32	$233.56	3
Pennsylvania	294	$275.16	$234.13	1
New York	192	$351.06	$233.70	2
Illinois	149	$311.70	$233.51	5
Colorado	93	$288.56	$233.95	3
North Carolina	79	$273.30	$233.68	1
Minnesota	73	$300.60	$233.47	1
New Jersey	47	$351.32	$234.20	1
Missouri	43	$258.58	$231.22	2
California	40	$331.82	$235.34	2
Maryland	34	$315.66	$233.68	1
Arkansas	26	$258.14	$233.63	1
Ohio	12	$278.96	$233.72	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
36470Injection of chemical agent into single incompetent vein$103.15
36430Transfusion of blood or blood products$42.77
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.