How much does Medicare pay for CPT 70496?

Medicare allowed an average of $84.13 per service and paid $64.53 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $469.37, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 70496?

Ct scan of blood vessels of head with contrast. It was billed 757,050 times to 746,229 Medicare beneficiaries by 12,590 providers in 2024.

Does 70496 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $183.08 in an office setting and $80.55 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 70496 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 723,196 services from 11,895 clinicians. Next are Interventional Radiology, Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF), Neurology.

CPT 70496

Ct scan of blood vessels of head with contrast

$84.13Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 757,050 services

Providers submitted

$469.37

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$84.13

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$64.53

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $469.37 for this code and Medicare allowed $84.13 — 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 $64.53 (77%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $183.08
Hospital / facility: $80.55

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. 26,502 services were billed in an office setting and 730,548 in a facility.

Services: 757,050
Beneficiaries: 746,229
Providers billing it: 12,590
Total allowed: $63,690,617

What Medicare pays for CPT 70496

Across 757,050 services billed by 12,590 providers to 746,229 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $84.13 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 70496

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	723,196	712,890	$83.50	11,895
Interventional Radiology	25,184	24,884	$82.43	434
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	3,192	3,067	$214.68	133
Neurology	1,162	1,140	$97.71	26
Nuclear Medicine	958	944	$81.86	17
Radiation Oncology	750	730	$86.34	12
Internal Medicine	600	594	$104.85	13
Cardiology	341	341	$162.27	9
Undefined Physician type	329	320	$85.80	5
Emergency Medicine	186	184	$87.93	6
Family Practice	182	180	$98.69	5
Neurosurgery	140	139	$142.20	8
Vascular Surgery	121	112	$112.14	5
General Surgery	102	101	$83.40	2
Physician Assistant	97	96	$145.70	2

70496 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	70,795	$90.73	$63.06	1,200
Texas	55,331	$83.80	$63.80	837
Florida	41,273	$88.37	$65.68	746
New York	38,446	$92.28	$63.86	591
Minnesota	34,681	$82.63	$61.39	489
Pennsylvania	31,888	$80.81	$60.04	589
Illinois	31,751	$84.06	$61.73	596
North Carolina	26,469	$82.34	$63.45	398
Massachusetts	26,160	$85.24	$60.30	406
Michigan	24,282	$80.71	$59.86	366
Ohio	23,283	$79.33	$59.69	382
Washington	20,739	$85.66	$60.39	217
Virginia	20,695	$83.14	$62.50	295
Colorado	20,660	$85.35	$61.42	262
Georgia	20,371	$82.50	$62.20	328
Tennessee	19,409	$80.97	$63.23	352
New Jersey	17,917	$89.90	$63.20	296
Missouri	17,794	$78.78	$60.30	294
Maryland	14,728	$90.52	$65.64	252
Arizona	14,436	$89.52	$67.83	219
Wisconsin	13,995	$78.74	$59.32	311
Indiana	13,383	$78.72	$60.31	216
South Carolina	12,668	$80.88	$63.49	215
Connecticut	10,872	$84.91	$60.86	180
Alabama	9,853	$77.62	$60.76	235
Oklahoma	8,657	$79.56	$61.31	160
Louisiana	8,297	$79.73	$61.23	212
Oregon	8,281	$81.46	$60.27	174
Arkansas	7,878	$75.90	$60.01	123
Kentucky	7,790	$78.46	$59.89	154
Kansas	7,676	$76.99	$60.69	129
Utah	7,122	$79.86	$61.34	130
Mississippi	6,926	$78.82	$62.71	114
Nevada	6,332	$85.77	$65.68	117
Nebraska	5,770	$76.92	$60.45	85
Iowa	5,410	$79.66	$61.87	116
New Hampshire	5,355	$80.22	$58.47	98
Rhode Island	4,605	$84.36	$58.89	78
Idaho	4,583	$77.68	$58.37	88
West Virginia	4,226	$77.87	$57.75	91
New Mexico	3,391	$79.60	$58.17	71
District of Columbia	2,816	$89.92	$63.83	32
Delaware	2,674	$82.39	$62.26	35
Montana	2,658	$79.43	$58.49	53
Maine	2,608	$84.21	$59.78	50
Alaska	2,360	$112.94	$64.17	41
North Dakota	2,067	$78.09	$58.86	38
South Dakota	2,034	$78.33	$58.48	28
Hawaii	1,861	$81.58	$60.01	31
Vermont	1,610	$78.36	$57.74	24
Wyoming	1,339	$86.93	$66.06	30
Puerto Rico	253	$97.81	$74.58	5
AA	170	$78.53	$60.60	2
ZZ	141	$78.58	$61.86	1
AP	134	$82.50	$60.90	3
Guam	109	$115.45	$78.83	4

Related codes

70450Ct scan head or brain without contrast$40.22
70498Ct scan of blood vessels of neck$80.79
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.