How much does Medicare pay for CPT 37252?

Medicare allowed an average of $758.72 per service and paid $605.17 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $2645.19, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 37252?

Ultrasound evaluation of blood vessel with review by radiologist, initial vessel. It was billed 52,616 times to 39,506 Medicare beneficiaries by 1,039 providers in 2024.

Does 37252 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $941.44 in an office setting and $84.93 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 37252 most?

Vascular Surgery, with 20,650 services from 458 clinicians. Next are Interventional Radiology, Cardiology, Interventional Cardiology.

CPT 37252

Ultrasound evaluation of blood vessel with review by radiologist, initial vessel

$758.72Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 52,616 services

Providers submitted

$2645.19

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$758.72

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$605.17

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $2645.19 for this code and Medicare allowed $758.72 — 3.5× 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 $605.17 (80%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $941.44
Hospital / facility: $84.93

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. 41,391 services were billed in an office setting and 11,225 in a facility.

Services: 52,616
Beneficiaries: 39,506
Providers billing it: 1,039
Total allowed: $39,920,812

What Medicare pays for CPT 37252

Across 52,616 services billed by 1,039 providers to 39,506 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $758.72 per service. That is 1.3 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 37252

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Vascular Surgery	20,650	16,108	$717.53	458
Interventional Radiology	7,688	5,391	$902.61	101
Cardiology	7,592	5,596	$741.59	162
Interventional Cardiology	5,615	4,450	$598.07	151
Diagnostic Radiology	3,310	2,428	$920.48	53
Nephrology	2,548	1,777	$956.22	22
General Surgery	1,932	1,561	$578.49	39
Thoracic Surgery	950	631	$913.68	14
Internal Medicine	809	602	$765.26	16
Peripheral Vascular Disease	554	265	$868.70	6
Physician Assistant	328	235	$160.08	3
Cardiac Surgery	268	210	$719.91	7
General Practice	185	117	$977.71	3
Undefined Physician type	89	53	$1217.86	1
Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology	54	44	$913.21	1

37252 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	8,893	$834.34	$569.40	111
Florida	5,307	$745.25	$598.33	112
Texas	4,377	$686.75	$567.22	110
New York	4,222	$997.34	$683.63	60
New Jersey	3,582	$961.84	$668.54	48
Maryland	3,215	$789.84	$570.89	42
Michigan	2,088	$782.30	$637.24	44
Tennessee	1,459	$652.77	$580.69	28
Georgia	1,441	$697.15	$605.93	32
Connecticut	1,415	$988.29	$695.59	27
Illinois	1,366	$698.18	$576.10	25
Virginia	1,360	$785.94	$632.55	31
North Carolina	1,341	$695.22	$597.41	23
Arizona	1,341	$727.43	$609.46	33
Massachusetts	1,037	$886.40	$679.05	25
South Carolina	742	$671.95	$571.26	15
Indiana	670	$453.86	$393.70	19
Pennsylvania	650	$418.19	$332.81	18
Louisiana	559	$538.46	$464.40	16
South Dakota	542	$626.83	$507.61	12
Oklahoma	529	$475.81	$422.19	10
Alabama	509	$627.36	$562.20	19
Nevada	443	$800.09	$608.39	11
Arkansas	419	$507.74	$454.53	12
Missouri	413	$332.07	$275.62	18
Ohio	381	$215.47	$182.82	20
Kentucky	360	$711.04	$635.82	9
Oregon	356	$624.73	$503.84	12
District of Columbia	352	$743.91	$504.44	11
Nebraska	347	$219.61	$192.03	6
Mississippi	343	$474.91	$440.40	10
Delaware	341	$974.92	$724.41	4
Colorado	331	$534.25	$407.41	11
Kansas	267	$317.27	$278.30	5
Utah	238	$833.59	$678.28	6
Washington	237	$269.14	$188.08	8
New Mexico	224	$229.67	$194.10	7
Hawaii	200	$826.14	$595.92	3
Minnesota	172	$493.35	$382.89	6
Iowa	169	$565.20	$491.21	5
Rhode Island	99	$728.28	$589.75	3
Wyoming	53	$82.83	$67.68	1
Idaho	49	$636.17	$537.07	2
Wisconsin	43	$430.00	$420.09	2
Alaska	39	$1001.42	$724.07	1
Montana	35	$81.32	$67.79	2
West Virginia	28	$81.22	$65.96	2
Maine	16	$878.55	$746.37	1
Guam	16	$1025.48	$726.07	1

Related codes

37253Ultrasound evaluation of blood vessel$158.74
37229Removal of plaque in artery of leg$7260.85
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.