How much does Medicare pay for CPT 36482?

Medicare allowed an average of $1603.82 per service and paid $1272.99 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $5750.07, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 36482?

Chemical destruction of first incompetent vein of arm or leg using imaging guidance. It was billed 44,884 times to 21,984 Medicare beneficiaries by 666 providers in 2024.

Does 36482 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $1642.92 in an office setting and $374.00 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 36482 most?

General Surgery, with 9,946 services from 95 clinicians. Next are Cardiology, Vascular Surgery, Interventional Cardiology.

CPT 36482

Chemical destruction of first incompetent vein of arm or leg using imaging guidance

$1603.82Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 44,884 services

Providers submitted

$5750.07

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$1603.82

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$1272.99

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $5750.07 for this code and Medicare allowed $1603.82 — 3.6× 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 $1272.99 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $1642.92
Hospital / facility: $374.00

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. 43,501 services were billed in an office setting and 1,383 in a facility.

Services: 44,884
Beneficiaries: 21,984
Providers billing it: 666
Total allowed: $71,985,857

What Medicare pays for CPT 36482

Across 44,884 services billed by 666 providers to 21,984 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $1603.82 per service. That is 2.0 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 36482

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
General Surgery	9,946	3,809	$1590.64	95
Cardiology	9,522	4,963	$1607.16	152
Vascular Surgery	9,004	5,040	$1685.20	157
Interventional Cardiology	3,129	1,907	$1469.72	78
Diagnostic Radiology	2,700	1,294	$1643.98	32
Internal Medicine	2,173	816	$1731.50	18
Family Practice	1,775	846	$1614.08	22
Interventional Radiology	1,688	783	$1569.41	31
Thoracic Surgery	834	406	$1651.29	8
Physician Assistant	703	412	$1457.12	11
Nurse Practitioner	628	300	$1088.05	14
Emergency Medicine	565	322	$1622.62	8
Obstetrics & Gynecology	535	198	$1658.90	4
General Practice	339	109	$1672.45	4
Cardiac Surgery	305	175	$1700.70	4

36482 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	9,511	$1823.56	$1264.18	106
Florida	6,392	$1569.17	$1272.69	71
Texas	4,480	$1584.45	$1293.88	75
Illinois	3,470	$1658.77	$1280.72	44
Arizona	3,228	$1540.28	$1271.76	36
New York	1,618	$1886.46	$1277.52	35
Tennessee	1,526	$1429.65	$1272.22	21
Colorado	1,492	$1631.59	$1248.24	14
Virginia	1,315	$1588.09	$1238.65	24
Pennsylvania	1,108	$1371.59	$1191.47	18
Georgia	1,073	$1565.04	$1282.89	20
Indiana	943	$1237.44	$1062.05	16
Nevada	855	$1543.88	$1256.72	10
Michigan	637	$1639.83	$1270.34	12
Alabama	603	$1481.38	$1299.27	12
New Jersey	552	$1806.91	$1279.94	7
Utah	482	$1471.62	$1236.56	9
South Dakota	468	$1437.31	$1159.62	8
Iowa	441	$1483.82	$1275.33	10
Maryland	394	$1721.16	$1278.51	11
Oklahoma	393	$398.02	$337.76	6
North Carolina	381	$1624.11	$1281.31	4
Missouri	337	$1483.15	$1219.14	7
Massachusetts	330	$1705.56	$1282.65	9
Louisiana	310	$1431.41	$1275.06	12
Oregon	294	$1464.71	$1171.10	8
Minnesota	284	$1460.84	$1133.91	8
Ohio	258	$765.65	$665.17	6
Wyoming	242	$1604.28	$1268.75	3
Nebraska	205	$1513.61	$1283.25	6
Kansas	201	$618.75	$528.54	7
Mississippi	194	$939.14	$845.27	6
Connecticut	181	$1729.14	$1286.53	5
Delaware	139	$1591.93	$1275.62	4
Rhode Island	101	$1661.10	$1271.49	1
District of Columbia	97	$1800.05	$1299.41	2
Washington	95	$1762.69	$1300.04	3
Idaho	75	$1174.57	$1008.05	3
Kentucky	58	$1498.16	$1267.84	2
Maine	36	$1744.84	$1267.80	1
West Virginia	28	$1755.63	$1282.82	1
South Carolina	21	$160.88	$135.50	1
Arkansas	18	$160.06	$140.71	1
Wisconsin	18	$1465.01	$1260.55	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
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.