How much does Medicare pay for CPT 72083?

Medicare allowed an average of $38.30 per service and paid $29.04 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $159.47, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 72083?

X-ray of entire middle and lower spine, 4-5 views. It was billed 12,171 times to 11,030 Medicare beneficiaries by 295 providers in 2024.

Does 72083 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $49.12 in an office setting and $16.96 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 72083 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 6,999 services from 221 clinicians. Next are Portable X-Ray Supplier, Orthopedic Surgery, Physician Assistant.

CPT 72083

X-ray of entire middle and lower spine, 4-5 views

$38.30Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 12,171 services

Providers submitted

$159.47

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$38.30

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$29.04

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $159.47 for this code and Medicare allowed $38.30 — 4.2× 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 $29.04 (76%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $49.12
Hospital / facility: $16.96

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. 8,076 services were billed in an office setting and 4,095 in a facility.

Services: 12,171
Beneficiaries: 11,030
Providers billing it: 295
Total allowed: $466,149

What Medicare pays for CPT 72083

Across 12,171 services billed by 295 providers to 11,030 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $38.30 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 72083

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	6,999	6,888	$28.27	221
Portable X-Ray Supplier	3,016	2,097	$38.96	4
Orthopedic Surgery	1,239	1,163	$74.61	29
Physician Assistant	294	291	$54.06	13
Nurse Practitioner	204	187	$58.50	11
Neurosurgery	200	191	$73.71	9
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	97	93	$84.37	1
Interventional Radiology	57	56	$49.34	2
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation	49	49	$79.81	4
Internal Medicine	16	15	$55.03	1

72083 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
Maryland	2,830	$38.05	$29.03	9
New York	2,512	$37.08	$24.90	48
Illinois	897	$26.79	$20.30	28
Washington	525	$27.53	$20.30	9
Florida	523	$46.88	$41.48	22
California	497	$61.75	$39.80	15
Missouri	490	$15.91	$12.83	18
Minnesota	406	$70.70	$52.36	15
Virginia	347	$18.42	$13.13	4
Indiana	286	$36.36	$28.26	11
North Carolina	265	$37.10	$30.36	16
Arizona	251	$19.13	$15.03	6
Michigan	233	$24.41	$18.74	11
Alabama	226	$61.32	$52.92	7
South Carolina	219	$68.10	$57.80	4
Colorado	212	$52.25	$38.47	7
Kentucky	176	$42.47	$37.04	7
Ohio	176	$16.23	$12.94	8
Texas	175	$56.84	$47.60	10
Georgia	122	$71.13	$54.61	6
Iowa	97	$13.46	$12.62	6
Connecticut	97	$84.37	$60.84	1
Oregon	93	$17.82	$13.28	5
Massachusetts	79	$18.73	$13.18	3
Hawaii	75	$17.24	$12.20	1
Oklahoma	69	$15.73	$12.85	2
Tennessee	50	$32.13	$30.25	3
Alaska	48	$84.91	$57.19	3
Nebraska	44	$63.12	$42.52	1
Pennsylvania	43	$16.03	$11.21	1
New Jersey	32	$52.44	$35.27	2
Mississippi	14	$55.03	$40.75	1
Vermont	13	$16.49	$13.29	1
Wisconsin	13	$16.55	$13.29	1
Delaware	12	$17.39	$13.27	1
Louisiana	12	$70.11	$62.12	1
District of Columbia	12	$94.81	$61.52	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
72072X-ray of middle spine$19.03
72020X-ray of spine$14.55
72052X-ray of upper spine$42.79
72080X-ray of middle and lower spine$22.02
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.