How much does Medicare pay for CPT 70552?

Medicare allowed an average of $109.43 per service and paid $84.43 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $757.67, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 70552?

Mri scan of brain with contrast. It was billed 4,311 times to 4,170 Medicare beneficiaries by 212 providers in 2024.

Does 70552 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $224.08 in an office setting and $82.90 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 70552 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 4,199 services from 206 clinicians. Next are Neurology, Interventional Radiology, Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF).

CPT 70552

Mri scan of brain with contrast

$109.43Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 4,311 services

Providers submitted

$757.67

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$109.43

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$84.43

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $757.67 for this code and Medicare allowed $109.43 — 6.9× 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 $84.43 (77%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $224.08
Hospital / facility: $82.90

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. 810 services were billed in an office setting and 3,501 in a facility.

Services: 4,311
Beneficiaries: 4,170
Providers billing it: 212
Total allowed: $471,753

What Medicare pays for CPT 70552

Across 4,311 services billed by 212 providers to 4,170 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $109.43 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 70552

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	4,199	4,060	$109.20	206
Neurology	38	37	$80.81	1
Interventional Radiology	34	33	$79.31	2
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	23	23	$261.98	2
Nuclear Medicine	17	17	$84.01	1

70552 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	542	$144.34	$102.24	24
New York	540	$150.65	$101.73	22
Texas	526	$84.23	$63.64	23
Florida	500	$125.69	$96.05	21
Ohio	267	$79.91	$60.22	14
Minnesota	222	$80.80	$62.49	12
Pennsylvania	195	$83.52	$61.30	11
Illinois	182	$81.99	$60.81	12
Washington	177	$184.33	$135.63	8
South Carolina	140	$79.23	$63.46	4
Virginia	126	$81.51	$62.80	6
Mississippi	104	$78.01	$61.66	6
Louisiana	91	$78.41	$61.45	5
Montana	79	$106.75	$77.60	2
Michigan	74	$83.73	$62.78	5
Tennessee	54	$84.86	$65.58	4
Georgia	50	$80.12	$59.75	2
Iowa	41	$79.38	$60.49	3
Connecticut	40	$85.70	$63.55	3
Arizona	39	$80.38	$61.50	3
Massachusetts	38	$84.49	$61.78	3
North Carolina	35	$80.95	$61.85	3
West Virginia	35	$78.76	$58.43	2
Nevada	34	$262.97	$202.80	2
Alabama	33	$77.66	$63.46	2
Maryland	33	$82.36	$59.47	2
New Jersey	19	$86.27	$63.34	1
Utah	17	$79.59	$63.12	1
Arkansas	16	$77.18	$63.34	1
Missouri	14	$79.72	$63.23	1
Kentucky	13	$78.33	$58.03	1
Indiana	13	$84.04	$63.19	1
Kansas	11	$76.87	$63.11	1
District of Columbia	11	$85.88	$63.10	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
70548Mri scan of blood vessels of neck$83.23
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.