How much does Medicare pay for CPT 70250?

Medicare allowed an average of $17.28 per service and paid $13.23 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $57.13, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 70250?

X-ray of skull, 1-3 views. It was billed 17,170 times to 12,902 Medicare beneficiaries by 406 providers in 2024.

Does 70250 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $22.55 in an office setting and $9.38 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 70250 most?

Portable X-Ray Supplier, with 9,276 services from 71 clinicians. Next are Diagnostic Radiology, Oral Surgery (Dentist only), Otolaryngology.

CPT 70250

X-ray of skull, 1-3 views

$17.28Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 17,170 services

Providers submitted

$57.13

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$17.28

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$13.23

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $57.13 for this code and Medicare allowed $17.28 — 3.3× 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 $13.23 (77%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $22.55
Hospital / facility: $9.38

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. 10,301 services were billed in an office setting and 6,869 in a facility.

Services: 17,170
Beneficiaries: 12,902
Providers billing it: 406
Total allowed: $296,698

What Medicare pays for CPT 70250

Across 17,170 services billed by 406 providers to 12,902 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $17.28 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 70250

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Portable X-Ray Supplier	9,276	5,902	$20.73	71
Diagnostic Radiology	6,442	5,734	$9.42	290
Oral Surgery (Dentist only)	393	388	$34.74	9
Otolaryngology	216	211	$37.90	2
Interventional Radiology	158	142	$11.68	7
Neurosurgery	123	103	$32.97	7
General Practice	99	54	$33.26	2
Orthopedic Surgery	92	56	$29.94	1
Interventional Pain Management	67	28	$29.26	1
Dentist	65	65	$35.23	3
Maxillofacial Surgery	50	50	$38.63	3
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	39	29	$28.94	2
Nuclear Medicine	37	35	$8.73	2
Nurse Practitioner	32	30	$27.77	1
Pediatric Medicine	20	18	$8.73	1

70250 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	2,697	$23.10	$18.16	29
California	2,262	$22.63	$15.15	45
New York	1,945	$16.59	$11.62	36
Florida	1,726	$16.26	$12.28	30
Maryland	1,342	$16.94	$12.96	9
Ohio	777	$13.28	$10.21	27
Arizona	725	$18.70	$15.03	23
Tennessee	652	$14.83	$12.11	7
Illinois	587	$11.29	$8.62	16
Washington	465	$8.64	$6.27	10
Pennsylvania	400	$11.67	$8.40	17
North Carolina	396	$16.05	$12.91	22
Michigan	332	$24.55	$19.25	9
Missouri	308	$12.92	$10.50	14
New Jersey	251	$18.51	$12.48	9
Rhode Island	243	$8.85	$6.28	8
Louisiana	217	$12.15	$9.29	10
Massachusetts	212	$9.06	$6.58	11
Oklahoma	178	$12.44	$10.45	10
Virginia	157	$10.03	$7.80	7
Iowa	147	$8.12	$5.94	6
Nevada	142	$18.14	$13.47	3
Arkansas	126	$13.47	$11.45	2
Hawaii	102	$8.69	$6.44	1
Georgia	92	$29.94	$25.71	1
Colorado	74	$15.48	$12.11	5
Utah	72	$8.44	$6.03	4
Alabama	72	$18.71	$15.59	4
New Hampshire	54	$8.53	$6.16	3
South Carolina	54	$8.26	$6.54	4
West Virginia	50	$8.69	$6.65	2
Kansas	41	$17.14	$14.57	3
Montana	39	$8.47	$6.43	3
Connecticut	37	$18.56	$13.72	3
Vermont	32	$9.36	$6.35	2
New Mexico	30	$8.86	$6.33	2
Wisconsin	30	$8.39	$6.54	2
Minnesota	26	$23.10	$13.38	2
Indiana	24	$20.58	$16.55	2
Idaho	23	$8.67	$6.16	1
Kentucky	20	$8.73	$6.77	1
District of Columbia	11	$9.26	$6.17	1

Related codes

70220X-ray of paranasal sinus$27.63
70210X-ray of paranasal sinus$23.09
70260X-ray of skull$26.97

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.