How much does Medicare pay for CPT 37229?

Medicare allowed an average of $7260.85 per service and paid $5784.31 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $22,539, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 37229?

Removal of plaque in artery of leg, initial vessel. It was billed 28,601 times to 20,019 Medicare beneficiaries by 567 providers in 2024.

Does 37229 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $8111.60 in an office setting and $3364.72 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 37229 most?

Vascular Surgery, with 8,652 services from 208 clinicians. Next are Interventional Radiology, Cardiology, Diagnostic Radiology.

CPT 37229

Removal of plaque in artery of leg, initial vessel

$7260.85Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 28,601 services

Providers submitted

$22,539

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$7260.85

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$5784.31

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $22,539 for this code and Medicare allowed $7260.85 — 3.1× 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 $5784.31 (80%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $8111.60
Hospital / facility: $3364.72

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. 23,475 services were billed in an office setting and 5,126 in a facility.

Services: 28,601
Beneficiaries: 20,019
Providers billing it: 567
Total allowed: $207,667,571

What Medicare pays for CPT 37229

Across 28,601 services billed by 567 providers to 20,019 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $7260.85 per service. That is 1.4 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 37229

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Vascular Surgery	8,652	6,386	$6660.23	208
Interventional Radiology	5,181	3,375	$8019.79	69
Cardiology	4,396	3,049	$7809.07	96
Diagnostic Radiology	3,109	2,201	$7268.69	40
Interventional Cardiology	2,173	1,524	$7036.28	56
Ambulatory Surgical Center	2,025	1,445	$7591.40	38
General Surgery	814	603	$6490.10	23
Thoracic Surgery	675	469	$7929.81	9
Peripheral Vascular Disease	453	242	$7197.58	5
Nephrology	282	123	$9027.52	2
Physician Assistant	276	202	$1281.14	4
Cardiac Surgery	221	153	$6444.69	5
Internal Medicine	216	166	$7506.76	9
General Practice	86	54	$7745.70	2
Undefined Physician type	42	27	$9426.48	1

37229 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	7,758	$7811.56	$5370.55	103
Florida	3,168	$6601.38	$5180.42	66
New York	2,669	$7949.32	$5482.51	49
Texas	2,647	$6895.44	$5673.10	70
New Jersey	1,974	$8224.65	$5704.88	30
Maryland	1,612	$8568.02	$6055.13	29
Arizona	987	$6442.65	$5330.20	25
Tennessee	699	$6245.23	$5613.54	17
Michigan	677	$7231.28	$5848.75	14
Oklahoma	537	$4891.85	$4292.95	9
Arkansas	479	$5821.61	$5184.35	10
District of Columbia	454	$9600.06	$6548.46	5
North Carolina	426	$6436.58	$5516.35	12
Mississippi	362	$6232.77	$5734.05	9
Virginia	343	$7707.01	$6105.52	10
Louisiana	298	$6598.31	$5697.26	7
Illinois	277	$6077.92	$5152.52	8
Nevada	266	$8216.08	$6268.00	6
Kansas	266	$4516.34	$3982.69	7
Pennsylvania	235	$4426.67	$3626.32	10
Georgia	232	$6550.51	$5821.03	7
Nebraska	213	$4085.70	$3400.07	3
Delaware	195	$7530.72	$5535.32	2
Utah	189	$8036.93	$6649.62	4
Alabama	175	$6361.47	$5703.96	8
Massachusetts	172	$5986.35	$4481.82	6
Indiana	172	$6035.73	$5258.43	3
South Dakota	144	$6918.03	$5570.69	4
South Carolina	120	$7114.95	$6171.26	4
Missouri	115	$4997.80	$4148.54	6
New Mexico	114	$2308.26	$1903.37	3
Kentucky	113	$6243.32	$5625.16	2
Connecticut	77	$4778.29	$3276.23	3
Washington	72	$8866.59	$6610.04	1
Ohio	62	$4837.39	$4221.47	3
Colorado	59	$6141.05	$4659.86	2
Guam	53	$8891.22	$6914.03	2
Hawaii	52	$7356.24	$5170.34	1
Oregon	36	$7384.61	$5938.07	2
Idaho	26	$7756.07	$6541.37	1
Minnesota	25	$8183.24	$6205.42	1
Wisconsin	19	$7183.29	$6095.94	1
Iowa	17	$7541.45	$6583.18	1
West Virginia	15	$7509.80	$6786.71	1

Related codes

37253Ultrasound evaluation of blood vessel$158.74
37252Ultrasound evaluation of blood vessel$758.72
37225Removal of plaque in arteries of leg$5516.77
37243Occlusion of growths or obstructed vessels$4293.10
37227Removal of plaque and insertion of stents in arteries of leg$9119.72
37228Balloon dilation of artery of leg$1158.26
37224Balloon dilation of artery of leg$562.15
37242Occlusion of artery$4565.89
37215Insertion of stent and blood clot protection device in neck artery$885.92
37248Balloon dilation of vein$1242.61
37238Insertion of stent in vein$2975.98
37233Removal of plaque in artery of leg$1004.57

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.