How much does Medicare pay for CPT 70490?

Medicare allowed an average of $78.66 per service and paid $59.90 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $434.68, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 70490?

Ct scan of soft tissue of neck without contrast. It was billed 14,112 times to 13,399 Medicare beneficiaries by 731 providers in 2024.

Does 70490 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $114.49 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 70490 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 13,136 services from 679 clinicians. Next are Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF), Interventional Radiology, Nuclear Medicine.

CPT 70490

Ct scan of soft tissue of neck without contrast

$78.66Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 14,112 services

Providers submitted

$434.68

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$78.66

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$59.90

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $434.68 for this code and Medicare allowed $78.66 — 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 $59.90 (76%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $114.49
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. 4,886 services were billed in an office setting and 9,226 in a facility.

Services: 14,112
Beneficiaries: 13,399
Providers billing it: 731
Total allowed: $1,110,050

What Medicare pays for CPT 70490

Across 14,112 services billed by 731 providers to 13,399 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $78.66 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 70490

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	13,136	12,480	$77.21	679
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	417	394	$119.47	23
Interventional Radiology	207	203	$76.59	14
Nuclear Medicine	155	149	$89.12	7
Cardiology	59	59	$87.34	1
Radiation Oncology	43	31	$71.12	2
Undefined Physician type	29	24	$93.44	1
Internal Medicine	23	23	$57.14	1
Medical Oncology	19	12	$84.48	1
Rheumatology	13	13	$132.71	1
Endocrinology	11	11	$81.28	1

70490 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
Georgia	1,795	$62.66	$46.25	34
New York	1,517	$96.78	$62.60	73
California	1,440	$94.67	$64.78	71
Florida	1,418	$95.79	$69.41	84
Texas	1,403	$71.89	$53.28	83
Illinois	593	$63.37	$44.98	36
Maryland	464	$104.66	$72.38	25
Tennessee	453	$65.53	$52.20	26
Massachusetts	394	$64.80	$44.75	20
New Jersey	385	$92.80	$61.32	23
Michigan	326	$58.24	$43.58	16
Ohio	313	$57.81	$41.99	22
Virginia	311	$68.73	$50.91	18
Arkansas	295	$74.81	$61.76	15
Arizona	286	$89.45	$67.48	16
Pennsylvania	277	$77.18	$55.37	16
North Carolina	247	$60.53	$47.30	16
Missouri	233	$61.34	$47.17	17
Alabama	194	$61.72	$48.48	9
Nevada	179	$113.03	$85.81	9
Indiana	160	$58.43	$44.33	10
District of Columbia	159	$75.71	$53.25	8
Kansas	142	$64.38	$50.85	8
Louisiana	128	$72.41	$56.24	8
Minnesota	106	$60.04	$43.17	7
Colorado	102	$76.84	$50.30	6
Connecticut	96	$87.39	$62.26	6
Delaware	95	$73.42	$55.77	7
South Carolina	71	$61.50	$46.24	6
Washington	71	$67.93	$47.97	5
Mississippi	67	$56.51	$43.65	4
Oklahoma	62	$57.29	$44.33	5
Maine	56	$78.35	$53.50	1
Nebraska	52	$55.17	$42.48	3
West Virginia	50	$76.35	$58.57	4
Wisconsin	47	$62.31	$42.94	4
Kentucky	40	$87.27	$65.78	3
New Mexico	39	$87.45	$66.85	3
Rhode Island	23	$141.16	$97.19	2
Oregon	12	$59.08	$45.34	1
Alaska	11	$94.59	$52.97	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
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.