How much does Medicare pay for CPT 70487?

Medicare allowed an average of $57.47 per service and paid $43.21 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $380.68, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 70487?

Ct scan of face with contrast. It was billed 4,171 times to 4,013 Medicare beneficiaries by 236 providers in 2024.

Does 70487 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $88.32 in an office setting and $52.15 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 70487 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 3,716 services from 226 clinicians. Next are Interventional Radiology, Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF), Nuclear Medicine.

CPT 70487

Ct scan of face with contrast

$57.47Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 4,171 services

Providers submitted

$380.68

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$57.47

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$43.21

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $380.68 for this code and Medicare allowed $57.47 — 6.6× 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 $43.21 (75%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $88.32
Hospital / facility: $52.15

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. 613 services were billed in an office setting and 3,558 in a facility.

Services: 4,171
Beneficiaries: 4,013
Providers billing it: 236
Total allowed: $239,707

What Medicare pays for CPT 70487

Across 4,171 services billed by 236 providers to 4,013 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $57.47 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 70487

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	3,716	3,598	$56.73	226
Interventional Radiology	354	316	$49.58	5
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	63	62	$149.04	3
Nuclear Medicine	24	24	$48.09	1
Radiation Oncology	14	13	$57.18	1

70487 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	582	$51.56	$37.60	17
California	549	$61.43	$41.41	30
New York	539	$60.82	$39.73	27
Texas	364	$60.78	$45.65	23
Massachusetts	339	$58.67	$40.72	21
Maryland	243	$52.01	$38.01	11
Michigan	176	$51.74	$36.02	13
Pennsylvania	175	$50.28	$36.56	10
Washington	146	$54.88	$36.14	10
Arizona	128	$64.12	$49.40	8
North Carolina	117	$72.64	$54.57	8
Colorado	104	$52.37	$36.75	8
Illinois	98	$52.77	$37.72	7
Minnesota	79	$65.53	$50.47	5
Wisconsin	58	$49.56	$35.21	4
New Jersey	57	$87.86	$60.82	4
District of Columbia	51	$54.50	$38.20	2
Missouri	46	$50.99	$39.39	4
New Hampshire	43	$50.23	$38.12	3
Tennessee	40	$48.19	$35.01	3
Iowa	36	$49.37	$35.57	3
Georgia	28	$51.15	$36.03	2
Indiana	28	$48.13	$40.27	2
Nebraska	25	$48.45	$39.41	2
Delaware	24	$48.09	$36.08	1
Ohio	23	$50.28	$34.54	2
Nevada	22	$91.97	$68.84	2
Alabama	16	$55.08	$41.92	1
Oregon	13	$52.83	$39.21	1
Alaska	11	$70.52	$36.29	1
Kansas	11	$51.09	$39.89	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
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
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.