How much does Medicare pay for CPT 62284?

Medicare allowed an average of $81.56 per service and paid $62.89 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $571.39, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 62284?

Injection of contrast for imaging of lower spinal canal. It was billed 2,769 times to 2,724 Medicare beneficiaries by 146 providers in 2024.

Does 62284 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $171.88 in an office setting and $71.68 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 62284 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 949 services from 52 clinicians. Next are Physician Assistant, Nurse Practitioner, Neurosurgery.

CPT 62284

Injection of contrast for imaging of lower spinal canal

$81.56Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 2,769 services

Providers submitted

$571.39

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$81.56

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$62.89

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $571.39 for this code and Medicare allowed $81.56 — 7.0× 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 $62.89 (77%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $171.88
Hospital / facility: $71.68

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. 273 services were billed in an office setting and 2,496 in a facility.

Services: 2,769
Beneficiaries: 2,724
Providers billing it: 146
Total allowed: $225,840

What Medicare pays for CPT 62284

Across 2,769 services billed by 146 providers to 2,724 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $81.56 per service. 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 62284

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	949	932	$90.73	52
Physician Assistant	928	915	$68.05	50
Nurse Practitioner	318	311	$64.14	15
Neurosurgery	162	160	$75.20	5
Interventional Radiology	159	157	$78.32	11
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	123	121	$174.07	7
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation	60	60	$75.08	2
Neurology	28	28	$84.07	1
Orthopedic Surgery	18	17	$80.61	1
Pain Management	12	12	$70.76	1
Internal Medicine	12	11	$82.70	1

62284 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	351	$95.53	$78.02	17
Kentucky	280	$76.02	$61.58	7
North Carolina	205	$72.97	$57.32	13
South Carolina	179	$69.95	$57.07	9
Mississippi	167	$69.11	$58.03	7
Florida	141	$69.55	$53.51	8
Pennsylvania	125	$75.27	$58.14	8
Washington	105	$95.12	$77.28	5
Alabama	91	$90.62	$72.23	5
Virginia	91	$69.31	$53.20	5
Georgia	90	$71.07	$56.02	6
Arizona	87	$113.76	$93.52	6
South Dakota	79	$74.65	$57.76	3
Oklahoma	74	$95.48	$80.61	4
Missouri	73	$69.89	$55.33	4
California	69	$135.46	$94.34	4
New York	61	$65.45	$49.29	3
Maryland	58	$82.09	$62.93	3
Ohio	52	$75.11	$60.97	4
Tennessee	47	$66.67	$56.67	3
Nebraska	31	$113.82	$85.81	2
Utah	31	$65.58	$54.45	2
Louisiana	30	$60.75	$52.06	1
Michigan	28	$70.83	$56.03	2
Arkansas	27	$73.59	$64.20	2
Colorado	27	$73.59	$57.00	2
Connecticut	27	$72.14	$54.44	1
Kansas	26	$64.64	$48.93	1
Illinois	24	$77.41	$59.19	2
District of Columbia	19	$88.64	$63.87	1
Minnesota	15	$191.40	$132.81	1
Iowa	14	$73.78	$65.27	1
Idaho	12	$64.00	$47.00	1
Montana	11	$80.31	$53.22	1
Oregon	11	$179.39	$145.92	1
Indiana	11	$64.24	$54.40	1

Related codes

62264Removal of spinal canal scar tissue$360.21
62270Removal of cerebrospinal fluid$92.02
62252Reprogramming of cerebrospinal fluid shunt$67.99
62290Injection of contrast for imaging of each level of lower spine$192.84
62223Creation of brain fluid drainage shunt$693.11

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.