How much does Medicare pay for CPT 70498?

Medicare allowed an average of $80.79 per service and paid $62.31 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $486.97, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 70498?

Ct scan of blood vessels of neck with contrast. It was billed 785,257 times to 775,006 Medicare beneficiaries by 12,868 providers in 2024.

Does 70498 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $155.84 in an office setting and $77.57 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 70498 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 747,837 services from 12,087 clinicians. Next are Interventional Radiology, Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF), Cardiology.

CPT 70498

Ct scan of blood vessels of neck with contrast

$80.79Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 785,257 services

Providers submitted

$486.97

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$80.79

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$62.31

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $486.97 for this code and Medicare allowed $80.79 — 6.0× 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 $62.31 (77%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $155.84
Hospital / facility: $77.57

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. 32,270 services were billed in an office setting and 752,987 in a facility.

Services: 785,257
Beneficiaries: 775,006
Providers billing it: 12,868
Total allowed: $63,440,913

What Medicare pays for CPT 70498

Across 785,257 services billed by 12,868 providers to 775,006 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $80.79 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 70498

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	747,837	738,065	$80.15	12,087
Interventional Radiology	26,561	26,281	$80.08	440
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	3,610	3,496	$170.80	143
Cardiology	1,418	1,410	$147.81	54
Neurology	1,050	1,031	$88.38	22
Nuclear Medicine	948	934	$76.61	17
Radiation Oncology	758	749	$81.23	12
Internal Medicine	683	681	$96.16	17
Interventional Cardiology	462	455	$158.57	20
Undefined Physician type	305	299	$79.49	5
Vascular Surgery	226	215	$86.57	11
Family Practice	201	199	$82.59	5
Emergency Medicine	197	194	$81.53	7
Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology	186	186	$192.29	2
Physician Assistant	130	130	$119.10	2

70498 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	73,827	$86.63	$60.50	1,226
Texas	58,862	$80.81	$61.49	889
Florida	44,603	$86.95	$64.92	799
New York	39,158	$88.60	$61.70	600
Minnesota	35,434	$78.38	$58.52	496
Pennsylvania	32,856	$78.06	$58.27	588
Illinois	32,482	$81.46	$60.08	600
North Carolina	27,252	$78.13	$60.23	396
Massachusetts	25,914	$80.73	$57.90	408
Michigan	24,561	$77.72	$58.19	377
Ohio	23,505	$76.78	$57.79	388
Virginia	21,493	$79.43	$59.79	300
Colorado	21,053	$81.39	$58.97	263
Georgia	21,030	$79.20	$59.77	332
Washington	20,542	$80.58	$57.30	215
Tennessee	20,262	$77.03	$60.21	358
New Jersey	18,716	$88.07	$62.01	299
Missouri	18,279	$75.91	$58.28	295
Arizona	15,477	$83.89	$63.82	232
Maryland	14,997	$85.28	$62.42	255
Indiana	14,394	$75.91	$58.04	222
Wisconsin	14,315	$75.41	$57.03	315
South Carolina	13,250	$76.72	$60.02	223
Alabama	11,156	$75.47	$59.15	247
Connecticut	11,145	$81.84	$59.19	180
Louisiana	9,324	$80.72	$62.58	221
Oklahoma	8,889	$76.08	$58.50	164
Oregon	8,541	$77.22	$57.60	175
Arkansas	8,394	$73.34	$58.04	127
Kentucky	8,181	$76.55	$58.61	163
Kansas	7,922	$74.15	$58.45	128
Mississippi	7,325	$75.68	$60.48	117
Utah	7,036	$75.26	$57.44	130
Nevada	6,761	$85.16	$65.60	120
Nebraska	6,068	$73.76	$58.15	90
Iowa	5,451	$75.65	$58.82	118
New Hampshire	5,376	$76.91	$57.02	98
Rhode Island	4,679	$80.27	$57.38	78
Idaho	4,666	$74.40	$56.26	88
West Virginia	4,323	$76.32	$56.98	91
New Mexico	3,623	$76.90	$55.71	69
Delaware	3,165	$79.48	$59.76	36
District of Columbia	3,114	$85.99	$62.22	32
Montana	2,736	$76.28	$57.15	52
Maine	2,599	$78.43	$56.47	52
Alaska	2,473	$106.15	$60.92	46
North Dakota	2,174	$75.41	$56.74	40
South Dakota	2,096	$76.52	$56.49	29
Hawaii	1,862	$78.56	$57.92	31
Vermont	1,576	$75.86	$56.13	24
Wyoming	1,427	$82.29	$62.62	30
Puerto Rico	312	$86.77	$66.71	5
AA	174	$75.16	$58.44	2
AP	137	$79.63	$58.62	3
ZZ	135	$75.07	$58.91	1
Guam	111	$104.99	$68.63	4

Related codes

70450Ct scan head or brain without contrast$40.22
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
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.