How much does Medicare pay for CPT 70546?

Medicare allowed an average of $164.09 per service and paid $126.43 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $1381.36, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 70546?

Mri scan of blood vessels of head before and after contrast. It was billed 7,449 times to 7,295 Medicare beneficiaries by 353 providers in 2024.

Does 70546 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $282.08 in an office setting and $67.93 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 70546 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 6,778 services from 321 clinicians. Next are Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF), Neurology, Radiation Oncology.

CPT 70546

Mri scan of blood vessels of head before and after contrast

$164.09Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 7,449 services

Providers submitted

$1381.36

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$164.09

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$126.43

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $1381.36 for this code and Medicare allowed $164.09 — 8.4× 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 $126.43 (77%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $282.08
Hospital / facility: $67.93

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. 3,345 services were billed in an office setting and 4,104 in a facility.

Services: 7,449
Beneficiaries: 7,295
Providers billing it: 353
Total allowed: $1,222,306

What Medicare pays for CPT 70546

Across 7,449 services billed by 353 providers to 7,295 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $164.09 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 70546

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	6,778	6,631	$154.36	321
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	354	350	$282.41	19
Neurology	181	179	$300.65	7
Radiation Oncology	44	44	$75.67	1
Interventional Radiology	38	38	$147.74	3
Physician Assistant	31	30	$225.34	1
Nurse Practitioner	23	23	$251.75	1

70546 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	1,369	$242.28	$162.51	55
New York	698	$290.47	$201.32	32
Illinois	623	$77.78	$55.44	32
Arizona	502	$161.82	$126.92	16
Iowa	459	$63.31	$47.39	7
Wisconsin	407	$66.61	$52.29	18
Texas	364	$225.37	$176.08	20
Florida	352	$210.93	$165.78	19
Georgia	278	$85.57	$65.70	18
Washington	276	$84.36	$58.15	15
Missouri	241	$66.70	$51.45	15
New Jersey	218	$275.43	$187.08	9
Maryland	205	$115.18	$88.98	10
Virginia	164	$177.18	$124.15	11
Ohio	127	$151.64	$115.61	8
South Carolina	114	$99.35	$75.40	7
Nebraska	109	$64.31	$47.60	5
Pennsylvania	92	$138.28	$99.03	4
Alabama	91	$204.93	$177.86	4
Connecticut	90	$102.12	$75.00	5
Nevada	87	$322.18	$253.26	4
Michigan	77	$99.97	$74.64	5
North Carolina	58	$149.89	$122.60	4
Kansas	57	$65.99	$47.23	3
Minnesota	47	$65.71	$49.41	3
Massachusetts	42	$217.00	$144.51	3
Indiana	42	$63.95	$51.20	1
Kentucky	38	$65.63	$50.00	2
Louisiana	27	$67.06	$52.94	2
Alaska	27	$317.57	$197.32	2
North Dakota	27	$66.16	$47.00	2
New Mexico	25	$66.58	$43.74	2
Tennessee	24	$157.34	$135.56	2
Arkansas	23	$69.34	$54.38	2
Vermont	12	$63.56	$45.88	1
South Dakota	12	$65.40	$47.88	1
Rhode Island	12	$273.77	$164.39	1
Oklahoma	11	$67.53	$53.08	1
Delaware	11	$66.64	$42.76	1
New Hampshire	11	$61.70	$48.96	1

Related codes

70551Mri scan of brain without contrast$94.16
70553Mri scan of brain before and after contrast$153.94
70544Mri scan of blood vessels of head without contrast$93.59
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
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.