How much does Medicare pay for CPT 70480?

Medicare allowed an average of $109.74 per service and paid $82.67 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $605.04, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 70480?

Ct scan of cranial cavity without contrast. It was billed 22,837 times to 21,656 Medicare beneficiaries by 1,036 providers in 2024.

Does 70480 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $133.51 in an office setting and $59.69 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 70480 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 17,693 services from 845 clinicians. Next are Otolaryngology, Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF), Interventional Radiology.

CPT 70480

Ct scan of cranial cavity without contrast

$109.74Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 22,837 services

Providers submitted

$605.04

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$109.74

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$82.67

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $605.04 for this code and Medicare allowed $109.74 — 5.5× 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 $82.67 (75%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $133.51
Hospital / facility: $59.69

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. 15,483 services were billed in an office setting and 7,354 in a facility.

Services: 22,837
Beneficiaries: 21,656
Providers billing it: 1,036
Total allowed: $2,506,132

What Medicare pays for CPT 70480

Across 22,837 services billed by 1,036 providers to 21,656 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $109.74 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 70480

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	17,693	16,812	$100.47	845
Otolaryngology	2,746	2,627	$146.32	91
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	1,964	1,809	$148.04	78
Interventional Radiology	168	168	$71.49	7
Physician Assistant	59	58	$115.24	4
Radiation Oncology	55	47	$63.88	2
Nurse Practitioner	52	51	$100.76	3
Internal Medicine	47	47	$88.17	3
Endocrinology	28	14	$72.46	1
Sports Medicine	14	12	$107.17	1
Nuclear Medicine	11	11	$58.30	1

70480 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	2,859	$138.17	$91.55	103
Florida	2,803	$133.75	$100.27	107
Texas	1,872	$110.15	$84.47	90
New York	1,742	$119.79	$80.11	61
Massachusetts	1,154	$71.50	$48.54	38
Maryland	908	$132.22	$90.62	45
Illinois	832	$92.00	$64.52	54
Arizona	726	$119.52	$88.75	28
Tennessee	675	$85.15	$67.26	35
New Jersey	651	$145.41	$97.32	34
Virginia	614	$85.89	$61.94	30
Pennsylvania	610	$95.71	$67.87	38
Minnesota	488	$88.08	$63.53	28
Colorado	453	$104.71	$75.28	23
Ohio	432	$76.19	$56.19	26
Georgia	428	$131.36	$99.61	21
North Carolina	409	$95.30	$74.35	24
Missouri	403	$79.29	$61.87	23
South Carolina	350	$92.76	$75.40	19
Louisiana	330	$83.15	$65.30	16
Alabama	318	$85.65	$70.77	10
Michigan	301	$67.20	$48.48	17
Washington	279	$91.65	$63.50	15
Nevada	263	$149.42	$116.17	5
Arkansas	237	$74.32	$61.52	11
Kansas	237	$101.10	$82.00	10
Delaware	220	$68.60	$48.85	10
Iowa	197	$74.44	$57.12	10
Wisconsin	193	$68.14	$49.11	10
Oregon	180	$75.98	$57.09	9
Connecticut	179	$96.85	$65.67	9
Maine	178	$86.20	$58.95	5
Indiana	168	$104.22	$81.63	9
New Mexico	140	$131.75	$97.20	5
Nebraska	135	$64.99	$50.57	7
Oklahoma	126	$57.43	$43.02	8
Mississippi	93	$136.63	$118.09	2
District of Columbia	91	$98.26	$67.91	6
New Hampshire	81	$58.64	$43.18	5
Utah	71	$151.67	$120.01	4
Kentucky	61	$121.83	$97.54	4
Rhode Island	61	$167.33	$116.05	3
Montana	59	$114.31	$84.41	3
Alaska	58	$123.54	$71.42	4
North Dakota	58	$87.41	$76.81	4
South Dakota	51	$97.83	$73.70	3
West Virginia	25	$152.05	$118.06	2
Puerto Rico	14	$84.82	$65.86	1
Hawaii	13	$172.69	$122.88	1
Vermont	11	$57.98	$45.66	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
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.