How much does Medicare pay for CPT 72141?

Medicare allowed an average of $108.96 per service and paid $82.68 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $900.63, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 72141?

Mri scan of upper spinal canal without contrast. It was billed 564,779 times to 546,206 Medicare beneficiaries by 10,827 providers in 2024.

Does 72141 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $137.63 in an office setting and $67.29 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 72141 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 469,347 services from 8,695 clinicians. Next are Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF), Orthopedic Surgery, Interventional Radiology.

CPT 72141

Mri scan of upper spinal canal without contrast

$108.96Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 564,779 services

Providers submitted

$900.63

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$108.96

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$82.68

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $900.63 for this code and Medicare allowed $108.96 — 8.3× 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 $82.68 (76%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $137.63
Hospital / facility: $67.29

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. 334,570 services were billed in an office setting and 230,209 in a facility.

Services: 564,779
Beneficiaries: 546,206
Providers billing it: 10,827
Total allowed: $61,538,320

What Medicare pays for CPT 72141

Across 564,779 services billed by 10,827 providers to 546,206 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $108.96 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 72141

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	469,347	453,443	$102.40	8,695
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	54,119	52,940	$156.94	720
Orthopedic Surgery	14,450	13,792	$127.80	508
Interventional Radiology	6,190	6,138	$90.99	149
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation	4,818	4,628	$127.42	198
Neurosurgery	3,456	3,313	$126.59	110
Neurology	3,135	3,110	$129.27	101
Physician Assistant	1,592	1,487	$109.26	75
Pain Management	1,027	945	$129.71	39
Family Practice	1,026	985	$117.80	41
Nuclear Medicine	902	836	$112.22	18
Anesthesiology	871	817	$141.98	28
Interventional Pain Management	839	783	$136.93	29
Nurse Practitioner	580	576	$111.34	28
Internal Medicine	509	508	$112.67	14

72141 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	61,743	$130.69	$87.03	1,041
Florida	45,101	$128.09	$96.59	761
Texas	43,845	$108.38	$82.42	738
New York	39,982	$134.49	$90.50	638
Illinois	21,121	$95.03	$70.15	482
Ohio	18,659	$87.26	$65.64	326
North Carolina	18,522	$91.70	$71.18	411
Pennsylvania	18,168	$96.56	$70.12	401
Massachusetts	17,618	$102.94	$71.34	300
Georgia	17,575	$101.77	$78.99	380
Virginia	17,041	$98.73	$72.16	264
Maryland	16,032	$141.79	$99.41	198
New Jersey	15,952	$142.17	$96.87	261
Tennessee	13,828	$89.22	$71.60	310
Arizona	12,946	$116.91	$88.10	199
Colorado	12,158	$113.99	$81.03	240
Michigan	11,816	$87.30	$65.03	240
Missouri	11,600	$81.38	$63.05	226
Minnesota	11,466	$104.46	$77.10	300
South Carolina	11,044	$99.48	$79.16	227
Alabama	10,054	$102.18	$83.37	235
Washington	9,471	$102.53	$72.21	202
Louisiana	8,170	$99.26	$79.85	187
Oklahoma	7,970	$87.71	$68.83	143
Indiana	7,911	$88.66	$69.18	200
Arkansas	6,749	$72.39	$58.23	128
Wisconsin	6,140	$82.50	$62.07	176
Mississippi	5,889	$93.88	$77.63	112
Connecticut	5,870	$111.51	$79.78	132
Oregon	5,499	$91.54	$67.97	118
Nevada	5,314	$126.38	$95.49	95
Kansas	5,138	$81.43	$63.61	108
Kentucky	4,931	$90.03	$71.54	140
Iowa	3,924	$86.49	$68.04	96
Utah	3,738	$95.04	$73.48	88
Nebraska	3,484	$79.12	$62.60	85
Delaware	3,262	$101.59	$74.97	44
District of Columbia	3,227	$123.93	$84.93	32
New Hampshire	2,797	$80.69	$59.26	83
West Virginia	2,270	$90.10	$68.08	72
Idaho	2,078	$79.90	$62.02	36
Montana	1,944	$82.24	$60.12	45
Maine	1,890	$95.48	$70.41	41
New Mexico	1,877	$106.14	$81.63	48
Alaska	1,572	$142.75	$87.96	33
Rhode Island	1,467	$118.28	$83.16	28
Wyoming	1,194	$104.74	$77.51	36
North Dakota	1,191	$71.12	$53.39	35
South Dakota	1,013	$82.75	$61.78	36
Vermont	947	$82.55	$61.80	21
Hawaii	846	$113.74	$80.84	26
Puerto Rico	522	$124.46	$92.46	16
Guam	109	$178.32	$108.94	2
AA	35	$65.82	$43.59	2
XX	28	$69.18	$44.46	1
ZZ	27	$65.97	$51.48	1

Related codes

72125Ct scan of upper spine without contrast$46.99
72100X-ray of lower and sacral spine$23.76
72148Mri scan of lower spinal canal without contrast$116.92
72110X-ray of lower and sacral spine$34.78
72170X-ray of pelvis$13.01
72131Ct scan of lower spine without contrast$53.06
72197Mri scan of pelvis before and after contrast$191.31
72146Mri scan of middle spinal canal without contrast$99.42
72128Ct scan of middle spine without contrast$46.63
72158Mri scan of lower spinal canal before and after contrast$149.73
72192Ct scan of pelvis without contrast$53.35
72156Mri scan of upper spinal canal before and after contrast$142.72

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.