How much does Medicare pay for CPT 72072?

Medicare allowed an average of $19.03 per service and paid $13.59 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $85.83, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 72072?

X-ray of middle spine, 3 views. It was billed 67,588 times to 66,039 Medicare beneficiaries by 2,790 providers in 2024.

Does 72072 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $28.30 in an office setting and $10.42 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 72072 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 58,653 services from 2,460 clinicians. Next are Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF), Interventional Radiology, Rheumatology.

CPT 72072

X-ray of middle spine, 3 views

$19.03Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 67,588 services

Providers submitted

$85.83

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$19.03

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$13.59

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $85.83 for this code and Medicare allowed $19.03 — 4.5× 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 $13.59 (71%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $28.30
Hospital / facility: $10.42

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. 32,540 services were billed in an office setting and 35,048 in a facility.

Services: 67,588
Beneficiaries: 66,039
Providers billing it: 2,790
Total allowed: $1,286,200

What Medicare pays for CPT 72072

Across 67,588 services billed by 2,790 providers to 66,039 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $19.03 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 72072

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	58,653	57,546	$17.52	2,460
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	2,527	2,496	$34.79	110
Interventional Radiology	1,601	1,574	$18.62	71
Rheumatology	1,458	1,429	$34.55	13
Family Practice	744	684	$27.93	34
Internal Medicine	539	526	$28.82	21
Portable X-Ray Supplier	418	307	$22.69	13
Orthopedic Surgery	319	239	$29.74	15
Physician Assistant	252	245	$28.54	8
Radiation Oncology	239	197	$18.94	5
Emergency Medicine	187	187	$26.91	7
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation	129	128	$32.56	7
Neurosurgery	91	81	$34.11	5
Nurse Practitioner	58	50	$27.33	3
Neurology	57	57	$16.02	2

72072 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
Florida	6,386	$28.16	$20.58	215
California	6,254	$27.79	$17.77	247
Illinois	5,377	$17.22	$12.33	218
Ohio	4,183	$12.69	$9.25	144
Texas	3,550	$19.35	$14.36	160
Arizona	3,011	$27.21	$19.86	88
Missouri	2,877	$13.34	$10.01	121
Pennsylvania	2,561	$13.33	$9.49	105
Michigan	2,307	$15.31	$11.28	96
Tennessee	2,013	$17.19	$13.36	104
Louisiana	1,945	$29.56	$25.69	36
Indiana	1,618	$12.16	$9.01	57
New York	1,549	$26.16	$18.31	65
Georgia	1,527	$15.93	$12.09	67
Virginia	1,471	$15.65	$11.52	69
Washington	1,401	$18.21	$12.38	59
Iowa	1,242	$15.25	$11.58	50
Oklahoma	1,198	$12.23	$9.32	45
Minnesota	1,182	$14.60	$10.39	60
Kentucky	1,163	$11.88	$8.80	57
Alabama	1,152	$16.06	$12.62	63
West Virginia	1,115	$11.09	$7.78	49
Wisconsin	1,071	$14.01	$10.11	41
North Carolina	1,020	$20.56	$15.02	54
Kansas	966	$13.77	$10.27	50
Maryland	940	$20.84	$14.88	36
South Carolina	932	$13.92	$10.80	47
Massachusetts	850	$15.17	$10.39	38
Nevada	782	$28.19	$19.85	42
Oregon	748	$15.54	$10.60	43
Colorado	719	$15.49	$10.55	30
Nebraska	534	$13.25	$10.09	24
Idaho	378	$12.68	$9.82	17
New Jersey	378	$20.08	$13.76	23
New Hampshire	356	$13.02	$9.11	19
Mississippi	348	$13.14	$10.40	22
Arkansas	341	$12.85	$10.10	19
South Dakota	262	$10.36	$7.46	12
New Mexico	252	$19.49	$15.14	12
Alaska	242	$21.86	$12.51	13
Utah	205	$16.89	$12.58	13
Delaware	201	$12.09	$9.22	11
Wyoming	155	$16.41	$11.39	10
Montana	143	$10.42	$7.43	10
Hawaii	142	$20.74	$15.01	2
Connecticut	134	$14.14	$10.27	6
Rhode Island	118	$25.29	$18.03	4
North Dakota	116	$13.55	$9.04	7
Vermont	91	$10.22	$7.64	5
AA	29	$19.34	$15.28	1
District of Columbia	25	$33.02	$25.81	2
XX	16	$10.78	$8.14	1
Maine	12	$10.22	$7.11	1

Related codes

72040X-ray of upper spine$23.72
72050X-ray of upper spine$35.18
72070X-ray of middle spine$20.40
72082X-ray of entire middle and lower spine$39.67
72020X-ray of spine$14.55
72052X-ray of upper spine$42.79
72080X-ray of middle and lower spine$22.02
72083X-ray of entire middle and lower spine$38.30
72084X-ray of entire middle and lower spine$47.06
72081X-ray of entire middle and lower spine$28.90
72074X-ray of middle spine$26.65

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.