How much does Medicare pay for CPT 37253?

Medicare allowed an average of $158.74 per service and paid $126.69 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $537.19, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 37253?

Ultrasound evaluation of blood vessel with review by radiologist, each additional vessel. It was billed 84,440 times to 29,285 Medicare beneficiaries by 751 providers in 2024.

Does 37253 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $172.15 in an office setting and $68.07 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 37253 most?

Vascular Surgery, with 30,794 services from 325 clinicians. Next are Interventional Radiology, Cardiology, Interventional Cardiology.

CPT 37253

Ultrasound evaluation of blood vessel with review by radiologist, each additional vessel

$158.74Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 84,440 services

Providers submitted

$537.19

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$158.74

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$126.69

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $537.19 for this code and Medicare allowed $158.74 — 3.4× 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 $126.69 (80%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $172.15
Hospital / facility: $68.07

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. 73,560 services were billed in an office setting and 10,880 in a facility.

Services: 84,440
Beneficiaries: 29,285
Providers billing it: 751
Total allowed: $13,404,006

What Medicare pays for CPT 37253

Across 84,440 services billed by 751 providers to 29,285 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $158.74 per service. That is 2.9 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 37253

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Vascular Surgery	30,794	10,793	$152.30	325
Interventional Radiology	13,152	4,757	$169.50	80
Cardiology	12,461	4,132	$162.93	119
Interventional Cardiology	9,137	2,821	$150.37	92
Diagnostic Radiology	7,037	2,223	$175.06	48
Nephrology	2,974	1,700	$172.36	20
General Surgery	2,712	1,018	$132.12	27
Thoracic Surgery	2,014	538	$171.37	10
Internal Medicine	1,580	407	$174.72	8
Peripheral Vascular Disease	736	236	$167.48	6
Cardiac Surgery	644	209	$139.12	7
Physician Assistant	455	234	$27.53	3
General Practice	233	96	$192.76	2
Undefined Physician type	221	50	$205.78	1
Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology	123	35	$173.74	1

37253 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	14,668	$164.65	$116.86	92
Florida	9,447	$157.34	$122.60	89
Texas	7,277	$146.63	$120.34	81
New York	7,112	$186.37	$130.13	45
New Jersey	6,393	$177.00	$126.10	37
Michigan	4,260	$155.07	$120.84	37
Maryland	3,922	$180.48	$128.06	32
Georgia	3,387	$149.42	$126.37	24
Illinois	2,853	$151.79	$121.42	19
Connecticut	2,677	$182.99	$129.54	23
North Carolina	2,487	$152.91	$130.64	16
Tennessee	2,090	$135.14	$118.83	22
Virginia	2,011	$156.06	$127.43	28
Oklahoma	1,470	$134.94	$117.31	5
Arizona	1,376	$151.53	$128.12	20
Massachusetts	1,220	$163.60	$126.45	18
South Carolina	1,044	$144.18	$119.42	13
Louisiana	903	$146.69	$124.36	9
Indiana	880	$116.52	$100.27	11
Alabama	686	$132.34	$115.26	12
District of Columbia	627	$179.69	$124.15	5
Hawaii	598	$163.42	$123.87	1
Colorado	583	$133.01	$103.76	9
South Dakota	562	$135.90	$113.68	8
Delaware	551	$178.74	$133.17	4
Nevada	529	$171.17	$131.51	8
Mississippi	503	$89.09	$77.54	6
Ohio	441	$112.19	$93.79	8
Kansas	418	$84.56	$69.76	5
Arkansas	399	$124.82	$109.20	6
Kentucky	386	$144.03	$124.03	6
New Mexico	385	$116.08	$95.61	5
Missouri	361	$111.64	$91.37	8
Pennsylvania	341	$136.68	$107.54	9
Nebraska	330	$90.89	$80.09	3
Washington	263	$120.32	$87.98	7
Iowa	242	$114.41	$97.39	4
Utah	228	$167.05	$133.20	3
Minnesota	127	$168.72	$132.80	2
Oregon	107	$135.22	$115.02	3
Rhode Island	82	$166.00	$133.74	2
Wisconsin	69	$117.66	$103.47	2
Idaho	63	$158.61	$133.45	1
Wyoming	42	$66.73	$53.59	1
Montana	27	$63.71	$53.93	1
Alaska	13	$196.73	$133.62	1

Related codes

37252Ultrasound evaluation of blood vessel$758.72
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.