How much does Medicare pay for CPT 70548?

Medicare allowed an average of $83.23 per service and paid $64.36 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $561.91, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 70548?

Mri scan of blood vessels of neck with contrast. It was billed 4,645 times to 4,575 Medicare beneficiaries by 201 providers in 2024.

Does 70548 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $167.75 in an office setting and $68.14 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 70548 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 4,410 services from 191 clinicians. Next are Undefined Physician type, Interventional Radiology, Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF).

CPT 70548

Mri scan of blood vessels of neck with contrast

$83.23Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 4,645 services

Providers submitted

$561.91

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$83.23

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$64.36

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $561.91 for this code and Medicare allowed $83.23 — 6.8× 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 $64.36 (77%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $167.75
Hospital / facility: $68.14

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. 704 services were billed in an office setting and 3,941 in a facility.

Services: 4,645
Beneficiaries: 4,575
Providers billing it: 201
Total allowed: $386,603

What Medicare pays for CPT 70548

Across 4,645 services billed by 201 providers to 4,575 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $83.23 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 70548

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	4,410	4,342	$81.98	191
Undefined Physician type	100	99	$78.66	3
Interventional Radiology	56	56	$66.14	2
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	52	51	$157.59	3
Neurology	27	27	$197.11	2

70548 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
Texas	721	$66.40	$50.31	27
California	640	$106.17	$73.14	23
Arizona	630	$102.70	$79.28	26
Massachusetts	542	$87.70	$60.90	28
Maryland	505	$85.95	$63.76	21
South Carolina	217	$66.47	$53.11	6
Pennsylvania	192	$71.00	$51.38	8
Illinois	149	$69.73	$52.54	7
Missouri	131	$63.62	$50.81	8
Delaware	120	$71.07	$51.69	4
North Carolina	112	$63.97	$50.78	6
Maine	101	$97.40	$70.42	3
Washington	81	$73.37	$52.70	5
Florida	74	$70.85	$51.54	2
New York	59	$85.63	$58.38	2
Alabama	41	$61.60	$47.86	3
Mississippi	39	$64.70	$47.50	3
New Hampshire	38	$66.64	$53.15	3
Virginia	37	$69.60	$50.83	3
Wisconsin	35	$64.71	$51.22	2
Tennessee	33	$63.92	$50.88	2
Michigan	26	$68.38	$47.54	1
Hawaii	18	$170.26	$121.57	1
Connecticut	18	$70.39	$44.48	1
Minnesota	18	$69.43	$52.97	1
Indiana	16	$75.25	$50.35	1
Iowa	16	$66.70	$49.61	1
New Jersey	13	$71.81	$52.74	1
Vermont	12	$65.19	$51.74	1
Ohio	11	$66.32	$52.71	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
70546Mri scan of blood vessels of head before and after contrast$164.09
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.