How much does Medicare pay for CPT 72084?

Medicare allowed an average of $47.06 per service and paid $35.58 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $180.73, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 72084?

X-ray of entire middle and lower spine, minimum of 6 views. It was billed 8,855 times to 8,413 Medicare beneficiaries by 232 providers in 2024.

Does 72084 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $70.45 in an office setting and $19.79 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 72084 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 6,354 services from 173 clinicians. Next are Portable X-Ray Supplier, Neurosurgery, Orthopedic Surgery.

CPT 72084

X-ray of entire middle and lower spine, minimum of 6 views

$47.06Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 8,855 services

Providers submitted

$180.73

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$47.06

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$35.58

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $180.73 for this code and Medicare allowed $47.06 — 3.8× 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 $35.58 (76%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $70.45
Hospital / facility: $19.79

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. 4,767 services were billed in an office setting and 4,088 in a facility.

Services: 8,855
Beneficiaries: 8,413
Providers billing it: 232
Total allowed: $416,716

What Medicare pays for CPT 72084

Across 8,855 services billed by 232 providers to 8,413 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $47.06 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 72084

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	6,354	6,160	$35.01	173
Portable X-Ray Supplier	792	589	$50.49	7
Neurosurgery	581	572	$96.81	12
Orthopedic Surgery	440	408	$94.08	22
Physician Assistant	316	315	$81.89	5
Nurse Practitioner	206	204	$80.68	6
Interventional Radiology	97	97	$80.18	4
Family Practice	34	34	$92.09	1
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation	24	23	$98.72	1
Internal Medicine	11	11	$81.32	1

72084 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
New York	1,358	$43.86	$31.75	42
Maryland	988	$56.06	$43.75	10
Missouri	986	$18.98	$14.89	20
Washington	798	$81.29	$57.67	10
California	645	$40.00	$27.73	17
Texas	643	$31.38	$23.75	17
Virginia	444	$30.31	$22.79	10
Alabama	409	$27.53	$21.99	12
Illinois	387	$43.44	$31.68	14
Minnesota	274	$77.73	$59.40	6
Florida	180	$87.55	$72.81	7
Ohio	176	$40.05	$31.58	6
Kentucky	175	$59.77	$47.32	5
Massachusetts	173	$48.46	$33.62	3
Colorado	171	$56.79	$42.14	5
North Carolina	151	$88.64	$68.44	5
Michigan	128	$26.60	$19.98	7
Arizona	127	$28.23	$20.58	4
Indiana	127	$53.35	$41.37	6
Louisiana	88	$86.06	$72.17	3
Oregon	83	$32.94	$26.34	6
Pennsylvania	74	$29.96	$22.92	3
Hawaii	64	$49.41	$34.37	1
Nevada	60	$78.02	$63.44	3
Georgia	38	$93.14	$74.59	3
Nebraska	29	$78.33	$55.81	1
Iowa	25	$89.09	$74.46	2
Oklahoma	19	$18.06	$15.37	1
Tennessee	13	$88.10	$62.97	1
Kansas	11	$70.09	$52.56	1
New Hampshire	11	$20.46	$15.39	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
72083X-ray of entire middle and lower spine$38.30
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.