How much does Medicare pay for CPT 71555?

Medicare allowed an average of $147.99 per service and paid $112.37 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $924.13, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 71555?

Mri scan of blood vessels of chest. It was billed 4,656 times to 4,341 Medicare beneficiaries by 170 providers in 2024.

Does 71555 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $259.45 in an office setting and $83.42 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 71555 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 2,620 services from 101 clinicians. Next are Cardiology, Interventional Radiology, Interventional Cardiology.

CPT 71555

Mri scan of blood vessels of chest

$147.99Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 4,656 services

Providers submitted

$924.13

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$147.99

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$112.37

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $924.13 for this code and Medicare allowed $147.99 — 6.2× 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 $112.37 (76%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $259.45
Hospital / facility: $83.42

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. 1,708 services were billed in an office setting and 2,948 in a facility.

Services: 4,656
Beneficiaries: 4,341
Providers billing it: 170
Total allowed: $689,041

What Medicare pays for CPT 71555

Across 4,656 services billed by 170 providers to 4,341 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $147.99 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 71555

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	2,620	2,406	$152.65	101
Cardiology	1,605	1,506	$128.05	56
Interventional Radiology	154	154	$104.61	6
Interventional Cardiology	135	134	$284.54	2
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	76	76	$307.54	2
Nuclear Medicine	54	53	$86.53	2
Adult Congenital Heart Disease	12	12	$85.15	1

71555 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
Illinois	679	$86.50	$57.73	13
California	619	$176.03	$119.62	26
New York	458	$245.34	$159.97	20
Pennsylvania	395	$185.21	$144.11	10
Texas	329	$80.18	$59.47	9
North Carolina	309	$106.38	$82.87	7
Massachusetts	215	$137.50	$92.90	7
Ohio	204	$80.64	$60.19	11
Virginia	194	$191.22	$127.87	8
Washington	167	$206.47	$153.43	9
Oklahoma	142	$79.16	$56.51	3
Utah	135	$314.10	$262.10	2
Minnesota	125	$79.71	$56.52	8
Georgia	122	$82.44	$57.13	7
Florida	88	$81.22	$59.79	6
Alaska	68	$385.00	$235.82	2
Idaho	66	$78.70	$59.50	3
Wisconsin	64	$79.52	$61.65	5
Missouri	52	$263.77	$209.28	2
New Jersey	40	$227.18	$153.62	2
Iowa	36	$79.32	$58.71	2
Tennessee	32	$191.33	$121.93	1
Alabama	30	$91.54	$58.24	1
Arizona	25	$81.40	$57.29	2
Michigan	19	$80.43	$61.24	1
District of Columbia	17	$80.19	$45.07	1
Connecticut	14	$85.46	$63.67	1
Oregon	12	$88.87	$53.24	1

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.