How much does Medicare pay for CPT 70551?

Medicare allowed an average of $94.16 per service and paid $71.15 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $664.54, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 70551?

Mri scan of brain without contrast. It was billed 1,120,274 times to 1,086,742 Medicare beneficiaries by 13,540 providers in 2024.

Does 70551 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $157.01 in an office setting and $68.29 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 70551 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 1,031,970 services from 12,150 clinicians. Next are Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF), Interventional Radiology, Neurology.

CPT 70551

Mri scan of brain without contrast

$94.16Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 1,120,274 services

Providers submitted

$664.54

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$94.16

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$71.15

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $664.54 for this code and Medicare allowed $94.16 — 7.1× 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 $71.15 (76%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $157.01
Hospital / facility: $68.29

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. 326,705 services were billed in an office setting and 793,569 in a facility.

Services: 1,120,274
Beneficiaries: 1,086,742
Providers billing it: 13,540
Total allowed: $105,485,000

What Medicare pays for CPT 70551

Across 1,120,274 services billed by 13,540 providers to 1,086,742 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $94.16 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 70551

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	1,031,970	1,001,807	$89.95	12,150
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	48,251	46,127	$174.81	634
Interventional Radiology	18,431	18,220	$78.38	330
Neurology	13,572	12,739	$136.63	236
Nuclear Medicine	1,975	1,929	$113.82	19
Family Practice	1,109	1,051	$121.79	37
Internal Medicine	1,057	1,040	$121.01	37
Radiation Oncology	992	973	$91.55	13
Neurosurgery	618	591	$127.95	16
Undefined Physician type	347	339	$65.40	4
Emergency Medicine	276	276	$112.87	12
Orthopedic Surgery	261	259	$135.13	9
Pediatric Medicine	232	231	$115.10	7
Physician Assistant	167	163	$114.88	9
Nurse Practitioner	148	142	$110.71	7

70551 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	125,791	$112.30	$74.38	1,358
Texas	82,877	$90.58	$67.83	949
New York	82,776	$127.31	$84.20	709
Florida	81,726	$106.58	$79.40	946
Pennsylvania	44,486	$82.42	$59.56	600
Illinois	40,571	$81.92	$59.12	613
Massachusetts	40,133	$94.50	$65.23	396
North Carolina	38,441	$79.63	$60.77	397
New Jersey	37,118	$117.54	$79.63	347
Georgia	33,312	$86.59	$65.41	409
Virginia	32,676	$87.27	$63.62	296
Ohio	30,954	$78.47	$58.32	372
Maryland	30,689	$115.51	$80.28	245
Minnesota	29,684	$84.31	$61.49	493
Tennessee	29,085	$78.74	$61.04	368
Arizona	24,243	$100.13	$74.62	242
Missouri	21,955	$70.69	$53.73	287
Washington	21,442	$88.01	$61.61	233
Michigan	21,028	$81.79	$60.25	306
Colorado	20,996	$97.38	$68.68	255
South Carolina	18,314	$85.30	$66.26	253
Indiana	17,502	$71.59	$54.48	250
Alabama	17,397	$80.87	$63.54	289
Wisconsin	14,280	$71.57	$53.23	259
Connecticut	13,562	$89.57	$63.50	171
Louisiana	13,533	$79.97	$62.00	234
Oklahoma	11,696	$76.12	$57.74	187
Mississippi	10,964	$79.51	$63.54	136
Kentucky	10,402	$74.41	$56.33	172
Nevada	10,046	$103.37	$77.48	118
Oregon	9,979	$83.99	$61.41	170
Arkansas	9,638	$68.19	$53.74	140
Kansas	8,769	$71.15	$55.07	135
Iowa	8,099	$74.11	$57.55	122
Utah	8,071	$75.13	$57.15	138
Delaware	7,277	$85.01	$62.16	42
New Hampshire	6,697	$73.99	$53.73	107
District of Columbia	5,740	$119.85	$82.21	40
Maine	5,529	$85.23	$61.14	70
Idaho	5,264	$72.62	$54.56	73
Nebraska	4,809	$68.96	$53.64	92
Rhode Island	4,555	$96.70	$68.71	51
West Virginia	4,553	$81.53	$60.39	96
New Mexico	4,258	$84.20	$60.88	71
Montana	3,225	$72.63	$53.23	45
Alaska	2,928	$107.78	$62.82	43
Hawaii	2,749	$99.06	$68.91	41
South Dakota	2,483	$71.88	$52.89	29
North Dakota	2,352	$67.40	$49.35	41
Vermont	2,241	$74.57	$54.66	27
Wyoming	1,702	$84.05	$62.46	35
Puerto Rico	897	$140.50	$103.82	32
AA	267	$66.63	$49.71	2
Guam	218	$156.61	$85.39	4
AP	114	$70.74	$48.96	2
ZZ	101	$66.60	$51.48	1

Related codes

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
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.