How much does Medicare pay for CPT 70544?

Medicare allowed an average of $93.59 per service and paid $72.15 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $701.61, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 70544?

Mri scan of blood vessels of head without contrast. It was billed 118,794 times to 114,372 Medicare beneficiaries by 3,822 providers in 2024.

Does 70544 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $165.07 in an office setting and $55.64 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 70544 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 110,594 services from 3,519 clinicians. Next are Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF), Neurology, Interventional Radiology.

CPT 70544

Mri scan of blood vessels of head without contrast

$93.59Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 118,794 services

Providers submitted

$701.61

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$93.59

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$72.15

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $701.61 for this code and Medicare allowed $93.59 — 7.5× 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 $72.15 (77%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $165.07
Hospital / facility: $55.64

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. 41,201 services were billed in an office setting and 77,593 in a facility.

Services: 118,794
Beneficiaries: 114,372
Providers billing it: 3,822
Total allowed: $11,117,930

What Medicare pays for CPT 70544

Across 118,794 services billed by 3,822 providers to 114,372 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $93.59 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 70544

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	110,594	106,342	$89.12	3,519
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	3,903	3,830	$182.20	149
Neurology	1,751	1,681	$165.99	59
Interventional Radiology	1,499	1,483	$78.33	62
Nuclear Medicine	416	413	$173.23	7
Neurosurgery	252	248	$136.19	7
Undefined Physician type	126	125	$53.09	3
Internal Medicine	108	106	$130.40	7
Radiation Oncology	38	38	$60.66	2
Nurse Practitioner	38	38	$46.05	2
Family Practice	36	35	$118.53	3
Cardiology	33	33	$233.28	2

70544 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
New York	14,463	$140.72	$96.02	284
California	13,856	$112.26	$75.76	419
Florida	8,594	$99.37	$75.78	309
Texas	6,466	$81.26	$63.71	248
Massachusetts	5,656	$79.47	$60.64	156
Maryland	5,597	$104.89	$75.09	121
Pennsylvania	4,922	$80.20	$60.04	173
North Carolina	4,435	$73.24	$57.29	139
Minnesota	4,348	$74.96	$57.15	161
New Jersey	4,278	$103.93	$74.77	135
Virginia	4,141	$79.43	$58.98	99
Arizona	4,100	$107.13	$83.09	97
Illinois	3,856	$70.78	$52.56	160
Ohio	3,608	$66.27	$49.92	143
Georgia	3,046	$82.23	$63.41	116
Alabama	2,359	$75.54	$62.57	104
Michigan	2,339	$74.33	$56.50	86
Washington	1,900	$90.64	$65.73	67
Tennessee	1,857	$67.65	$53.65	74
Delaware	1,594	$63.46	$48.59	26
Missouri	1,476	$59.69	$47.10	66
Nevada	1,230	$120.11	$94.16	42
Colorado	1,223	$91.65	$66.96	45
South Carolina	1,155	$78.46	$62.91	45
District of Columbia	1,084	$90.19	$65.43	20
Connecticut	1,049	$78.03	$58.09	43
Wisconsin	933	$61.15	$48.41	48
Indiana	833	$58.22	$46.05	40
Oregon	679	$77.73	$59.12	25
Mississippi	670	$59.07	$50.97	32
Hawaii	634	$116.89	$82.98	15
Kansas	618	$57.90	$45.47	30
Utah	559	$64.63	$50.59	25
Louisiana	552	$77.79	$62.75	26
Maine	513	$93.26	$70.07	13
Kentucky	496	$62.03	$48.12	19
New Hampshire	476	$58.01	$44.29	20
Oklahoma	374	$56.40	$44.32	18
Nebraska	369	$61.73	$48.80	18
Iowa	329	$68.65	$56.46	16
South Dakota	304	$53.22	$40.69	12
Rhode Island	234	$88.88	$64.69	12
Montana	222	$65.64	$49.09	9
North Dakota	215	$57.84	$42.56	10
Idaho	178	$53.57	$40.29	10
West Virginia	171	$106.53	$81.65	8
Alaska	166	$159.56	$98.64	5
Vermont	156	$53.93	$41.64	7
Arkansas	154	$61.15	$51.83	10
New Mexico	147	$66.22	$52.50	5
Wyoming	109	$86.81	$68.31	7
Puerto Rico	30	$115.54	$86.40	2
Guam	27	$93.61	$52.04	1
XX	14	$56.40	$41.88	1

Related codes

70551Mri scan of brain without contrast$94.16
70553Mri scan of brain before and after contrast$153.94
70543Mri scan of bone of eye socket$189.65
70547Mri scan of blood vessels of neck without contrast$100.53
70549Mri scan of blood vessels of neck before and after contrast$145.19
70546Mri scan of blood vessels of head before and after contrast$164.09
70548Mri scan of blood vessels of neck$83.23
70552Mri scan of brain$109.43
70540Mri scan of bone of eye socket$143.49

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.