How much does Medicare pay for CPT 71048?

Medicare allowed an average of $32.24 per service and paid $23.55 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $103.99, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 71048?

X-ray of chest, minimum of 4 views. It was billed 2,521 times to 2,166 Medicare beneficiaries by 54 providers in 2024.

Does 71048 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $37.87 in an office setting and $16.91 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 71048 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 1,211 services from 35 clinicians. Next are Portable X-Ray Supplier, Cardiac Surgery, Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF).

CPT 71048

X-ray of chest, minimum of 4 views

$32.24Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 2,521 services

Providers submitted

$103.99

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$32.24

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$23.55

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $103.99 for this code and Medicare allowed $32.24 — 3.2× 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 $23.55 (73%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $37.87
Hospital / facility: $16.91

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. 1,844 services were billed in an office setting and 677 in a facility.

Services: 2,521
Beneficiaries: 2,166
Providers billing it: 54
Total allowed: $81,277

What Medicare pays for CPT 71048

Across 2,521 services billed by 54 providers to 2,166 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $32.24 per service. That is 1.2 services per beneficiary, so this is a code patients typically receive more than once. 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 71048

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	1,211	1,152	$30.33	35
Portable X-Ray Supplier	943	682	$31.82	8
Cardiac Surgery	119	91	$44.49	1
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	107	105	$48.69	4
Interventional Radiology	36	36	$13.39	1
Emergency Medicine	33	32	$40.35	1
Pulmonary Disease	23	23	$40.30	1
Internal Medicine	19	17	$44.82	1
Radiation Oncology	19	17	$15.78	1
Nuclear Medicine	11	11	$14.63	1

71048 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	915	$34.90	$23.83	13
Maryland	425	$22.29	$16.70	1
New York	290	$33.65	$21.22	9
Virginia	200	$44.12	$32.16	2
New Jersey	133	$49.39	$31.37	6
Texas	100	$42.55	$30.70	1
Washington	75	$14.23	$10.32	3
Pennsylvania	62	$13.78	$10.51	3
Georgia	56	$40.33	$29.71	2
Alabama	51	$13.43	$9.45	2
Arizona	43	$36.55	$22.88	2
Ohio	41	$14.65	$10.23	2
Illinois	41	$19.50	$15.11	2
Louisiana	32	$27.92	$21.96	2
Michigan	19	$44.82	$33.81	1
Hawaii	15	$14.45	$9.71	1
Florida	12	$43.14	$32.91	1
Wyoming	11	$14.09	$9.17	1

Related codes

71045X-ray of chest$8.64
71046X-ray of chest$16.28
71047X-ray of chest$24.54

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.