How much does Medicare pay for CPT 70470?

Medicare allowed an average of $83.98 per service and paid $63.38 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $474.17, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 70470?

Ct scan of head or brain before and after contrast. It was billed 15,611 times to 15,134 Medicare beneficiaries by 798 providers in 2024.

Does 70470 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $118.33 in an office setting and $57.42 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 70470 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 13,227 services from 689 clinicians. Next are Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF), Interventional Radiology, Hematology-Oncology.

CPT 70470

Ct scan of head or brain before and after contrast

$83.98Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 15,611 services

Providers submitted

$474.17

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$83.98

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$63.38

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $474.17 for this code and Medicare allowed $83.98 — 5.6× 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 $63.38 (75%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $118.33
Hospital / facility: $57.42

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. 6,809 services were billed in an office setting and 8,802 in a facility.

Services: 15,611
Beneficiaries: 15,134
Providers billing it: 798
Total allowed: $1,311,012

What Medicare pays for CPT 70470

Across 15,611 services billed by 798 providers to 15,134 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $83.98 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 70470

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	13,227	12,845	$78.55	689
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	1,008	962	$140.34	54
Interventional Radiology	302	300	$82.95	17
Hematology-Oncology	214	194	$96.95	11
Undefined Physician type	203	197	$60.40	3
Neurosurgery	161	157	$66.07	2
Nuclear Medicine	131	123	$136.15	5
Medical Oncology	79	74	$104.78	5
Internal Medicine	79	78	$139.08	3
Physician Assistant	73	73	$101.78	1
Radiation Oncology	47	45	$108.09	4
Pediatric Medicine	33	33	$163.48	1
Nurse Practitioner	25	25	$109.41	1
Cardiology	17	17	$139.08	1
Family Practice	12	11	$150.55	1

70470 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
Florida	2,138	$108.56	$81.20	90
Texas	1,851	$90.82	$67.77	100
New York	1,096	$88.96	$59.77	42
California	1,031	$101.41	$67.64	53
Arizona	901	$79.47	$60.76	27
Arkansas	896	$76.90	$64.45	40
Tennessee	647	$80.36	$64.16	36
Illinois	593	$62.97	$45.63	35
Virginia	478	$88.98	$68.30	25
Maryland	389	$90.43	$63.72	24
Kansas	377	$65.36	$51.79	18
Nebraska	376	$57.93	$45.74	23
Georgia	357	$88.81	$68.36	19
Michigan	337	$66.62	$50.14	21
Missouri	332	$59.59	$44.65	23
North Carolina	329	$81.17	$66.30	15
Mississippi	283	$67.33	$54.05	17
Ohio	264	$55.14	$40.85	18
Indiana	236	$57.48	$44.11	14
Louisiana	236	$81.61	$63.68	13
Alabama	224	$68.34	$52.44	11
Massachusetts	211	$73.75	$51.29	11
South Carolina	204	$68.43	$51.50	13
Kentucky	188	$63.83	$48.12	10
New Jersey	176	$110.05	$77.11	11
Nevada	157	$108.71	$85.36	8
Minnesota	152	$86.97	$63.10	9
Pennsylvania	142	$75.84	$54.28	11
Washington	125	$62.10	$44.61	8
Oklahoma	123	$56.79	$43.57	6
Iowa	104	$56.92	$41.76	7
Colorado	80	$58.20	$44.40	5
Connecticut	78	$68.13	$52.24	4
Maine	68	$78.79	$53.98	2
Utah	63	$66.82	$52.46	4
West Virginia	60	$81.30	$60.42	4
Delaware	56	$92.46	$70.48	3
Wisconsin	47	$59.34	$42.88	3
Alaska	43	$117.29	$65.61	3
New Mexico	30	$107.07	$78.61	2
District of Columbia	28	$110.42	$75.64	2
Rhode Island	19	$56.98	$38.11	1
AA	15	$57.54	$44.41	1
Wyoming	14	$58.32	$45.40	1
Oregon	12	$58.49	$41.44	1
South Dakota	12	$55.55	$44.08	1
Hawaii	11	$59.98	$41.00	1
New Hampshire	11	$56.84	$36.67	1
Vermont	11	$59.96	$45.20	1

Related codes

70450Ct scan head or brain without contrast$40.22
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
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.