How much does Medicare pay for CPT 70549?

Medicare allowed an average of $145.19 per service and paid $113.14 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $935.02, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 70549?

Mri scan of blood vessels of neck before and after contrast. It was billed 14,408 times to 13,983 Medicare beneficiaries by 691 providers in 2024.

Does 70549 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $281.89 in an office setting and $82.22 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 70549 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 13,214 services from 626 clinicians. Next are Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF), Neurology, Interventional Radiology.

CPT 70549

Mri scan of blood vessels of neck before and after contrast

$145.19Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 14,408 services

Providers submitted

$935.02

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$145.19

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$113.14

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $935.02 for this code and Medicare allowed $145.19 — 6.4× 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 $113.14 (78%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $281.89
Hospital / facility: $82.22

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. 4,544 services were billed in an office setting and 9,864 in a facility.

Services: 14,408
Beneficiaries: 13,983
Providers billing it: 691
Total allowed: $2,091,898

What Medicare pays for CPT 70549

Across 14,408 services billed by 691 providers to 13,983 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $145.19 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 70549

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	13,214	12,818	$134.49	626
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	651	627	$310.18	35
Neurology	321	317	$271.65	17
Interventional Radiology	158	157	$107.49	9
Nurse Practitioner	32	32	$69.03	2
Cardiology	17	17	$77.21	1
Internal Medicine	15	15	$342.98	1

70549 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	1,725	$173.52	$118.36	86
Minnesota	1,587	$93.96	$71.03	73
New York	1,057	$245.89	$167.45	41
Virginia	966	$108.92	$79.57	34
Massachusetts	959	$144.96	$101.92	44
Florida	878	$214.19	$167.08	49
Illinois	748	$99.28	$72.40	45
Texas	704	$179.17	$142.16	38
New Jersey	646	$145.47	$101.62	29
Pennsylvania	609	$91.59	$68.68	19
Arizona	538	$141.36	$110.53	24
Georgia	419	$127.39	$97.75	24
Missouri	383	$87.97	$68.23	14
Maryland	358	$154.82	$109.16	15
North Carolina	345	$135.72	$109.25	21
Michigan	337	$147.41	$115.73	20
Iowa	262	$77.48	$60.26	12
Washington	224	$98.26	$70.53	12
Alabama	177	$238.59	$208.35	9
Wisconsin	156	$116.17	$92.37	9
Colorado	127	$182.86	$130.17	6
Kansas	123	$106.00	$82.33	6
Connecticut	95	$84.13	$59.35	5
Oregon	86	$171.65	$137.31	3
Indiana	77	$79.19	$59.43	3
South Carolina	72	$116.70	$94.79	5
Ohio	69	$201.03	$156.16	5
Alaska	69	$208.13	$134.79	3
Nebraska	65	$77.03	$57.63	4
District of Columbia	60	$235.84	$166.09	4
South Dakota	56	$78.86	$56.35	3
Tennessee	48	$133.58	$104.74	4
New Mexico	44	$80.83	$61.42	1
Delaware	43	$80.74	$60.82	2
Kentucky	42	$79.43	$59.53	2
Utah	40	$82.69	$63.63	2
Arkansas	29	$90.21	$61.28	2
Oklahoma	28	$78.62	$60.34	2
North Dakota	27	$78.81	$55.29	2
West Virginia	25	$350.83	$271.22	1
Hawaii	17	$357.34	$244.56	1
Nevada	15	$346.15	$273.09	1
Louisiana	14	$86.56	$62.86	1
Wyoming	14	$245.04	$202.33	1
New Hampshire	12	$82.48	$64.09	1
Maine	11	$324.08	$276.60	1
Rhode Island	11	$86.58	$64.27	1
Montana	11	$79.99	$62.51	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
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.