How much does Medicare pay for CPT 70450?

Medicare allowed an average of $40.22 per service and paid $30.19 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $245.45, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 70450?

Ct scan head or brain without contrast. It was billed 4,896,874 times to 4,662,464 Medicare beneficiaries by 21,081 providers in 2024.

Does 70450 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $77.93 in an office setting and $38.65 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 70450 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 4,697,246 services from 19,245 clinicians. Next are Interventional Radiology, Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF), Nuclear Medicine.

CPT 70450

Ct scan head or brain without contrast

$40.22Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 4,896,874 services

Providers submitted

$245.45

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$40.22

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$30.19

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $245.45 for this code and Medicare allowed $40.22 — 6.1× 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 $30.19 (75%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $77.93
Hospital / facility: $38.65

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. 195,808 services were billed in an office setting and 4,701,066 in a facility.

Services: 4,896,874
Beneficiaries: 4,662,464
Providers billing it: 21,081
Total allowed: $196,952,272

What Medicare pays for CPT 70450

Across 4,896,874 services billed by 21,081 providers to 4,662,464 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $40.22 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 70450

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	4,697,246	4,472,246	$39.96	19,245
Interventional Radiology	140,977	135,337	$39.24	832
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	21,944	20,509	$89.64	402
Nuclear Medicine	6,612	6,331	$40.92	39
Internal Medicine	5,025	4,786	$54.75	116
Radiation Oncology	4,161	3,859	$42.00	23
Neurology	4,049	3,657	$42.06	42
Emergency Medicine	2,797	2,709	$57.85	83
Family Practice	2,604	2,471	$56.76	86
Neurosurgery	2,095	1,668	$56.04	54
Undefined Physician type	1,638	1,458	$40.29	8
Vascular Surgery	1,146	1,118	$37.74	3
Physician Assistant	980	970	$48.30	51
General Surgery	881	842	$39.83	4
Pediatric Medicine	838	812	$44.07	7

70450 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	459,059	$43.80	$29.45	2,171
Texas	364,434	$39.42	$29.22	1,413
Florida	344,310	$41.45	$29.89	1,337
New York	282,295	$44.66	$29.97	1,066
Illinois	233,180	$39.68	$28.48	929
Pennsylvania	204,965	$39.23	$28.33	943
Minnesota	190,332	$39.30	$28.41	806
North Carolina	175,116	$38.68	$28.95	763
Ohio	155,718	$38.11	$27.95	758
New Jersey	148,466	$43.58	$29.75	573
Massachusetts	148,291	$40.61	$28.25	583
Virginia	147,804	$39.55	$28.83	562
Georgia	137,998	$39.27	$28.89	584
Michigan	132,369	$38.62	$28.13	590
Missouri	120,435	$37.98	$28.43	475
Maryland	116,603	$43.92	$30.80	381
Tennessee	112,754	$38.21	$28.66	574
Indiana	92,055	$37.74	$28.25	408
Colorado	88,015	$40.38	$28.46	376
Arizona	86,864	$40.58	$29.79	351
Washington	84,505	$40.37	$28.04	377
Wisconsin	80,034	$37.64	$27.65	520
South Carolina	80,019	$38.37	$29.03	380
Alabama	77,579	$37.57	$28.36	336
Connecticut	67,214	$40.85	$28.86	322
Louisiana	66,874	$38.21	$28.50	317
Oklahoma	63,767	$37.96	$28.47	224
Mississippi	55,223	$37.54	$28.49	172
Kentucky	51,587	$37.96	$28.40	256
Arkansas	45,975	$36.46	$27.99	173
Kansas	45,372	$37.20	$28.55	159
Iowa	41,128	$37.93	$28.41	181
Nevada	39,557	$39.55	$29.44	189
Nebraska	37,074	$37.36	$28.42	137
Oregon	36,965	$39.16	$28.14	253
West Virginia	29,722	$37.99	$27.40	127
New Hampshire	28,824	$38.56	$27.71	123
Utah	25,299	$38.21	$28.73	180
New Mexico	22,722	$38.99	$28.20	110
Rhode Island	21,513	$40.98	$28.41	98
District of Columbia	20,821	$42.60	$29.40	68
Delaware	20,554	$39.62	$29.30	56
Idaho	17,816	$37.49	$27.39	116
Maine	15,362	$39.46	$27.54	84
Hawaii	13,922	$40.16	$28.07	90
Montana	13,424	$39.11	$28.60	68
North Dakota	10,238	$38.05	$28.01	63
South Dakota	9,662	$38.08	$27.35	55
Alaska	9,490	$50.94	$28.35	62
Vermont	8,204	$37.95	$27.33	31
Wyoming	7,048	$39.08	$28.29	34
Puerto Rico	4,649	$40.81	$29.34	57
AA	1,227	$37.96	$28.21	2
Guam	693	$47.10	$30.06	7
AP	681	$40.74	$28.14	4
XX	400	$39.47	$26.45	1

Related codes

70498Ct scan of blood vessels of neck$80.79
70496Ct scan of blood vessels of head$84.13
70486Ct scan of face without contrast$61.51
70491Ct scan of soft tissue of neck$81.73
70480Ct scan of cranial cavity without contrast$109.74
70470Ct scan of head or brain before and after contrast$83.98
70490Ct scan of soft tissue of neck without contrast$78.66
70492Ct scan of soft tissue of neck before and after contrast$150.79
70487Ct scan of face$57.47
70460Ct scan head or brain$68.11

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.