How much does Medicare pay for CPT 72146?

Medicare allowed an average of $99.42 per service and paid $76.47 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $903.52, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 72146?

Mri scan of middle spinal canal without contrast. It was billed 184,666 times to 178,233 Medicare beneficiaries by 6,085 providers in 2024.

Does 72146 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $125.96 in an office setting and $66.33 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 72146 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 155,626 services from 5,119 clinicians. Next are Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF), Orthopedic Surgery, Interventional Radiology.

CPT 72146

Mri scan of middle spinal canal without contrast

$99.42Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 184,666 services

Providers submitted

$903.52

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$99.42

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$76.47

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $903.52 for this code and Medicare allowed $99.42 — 9.1× 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 $76.47 (77%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $125.96
Hospital / facility: $66.33

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. 102,475 services were billed in an office setting and 82,191 in a facility.

Services: 184,666
Beneficiaries: 178,233
Providers billing it: 6,085
Total allowed: $18,359,494

What Medicare pays for CPT 72146

Across 184,666 services billed by 6,085 providers to 178,233 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $99.42 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 72146

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	155,626	150,174	$93.72	5,119
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	18,432	17,906	$142.36	493
Orthopedic Surgery	3,701	3,487	$108.85	161
Interventional Radiology	1,741	1,727	$87.69	72
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation	1,134	1,059	$110.48	58
Neurosurgery	987	950	$116.91	37
Neurology	458	451	$128.42	21
Anesthesiology	400	397	$150.61	12
Physician Assistant	386	348	$80.44	21
Pain Management	340	311	$126.06	16
Interventional Pain Management	301	270	$133.62	16
Nuclear Medicine	260	259	$110.26	9
Family Practice	169	169	$104.12	11
Internal Medicine	139	139	$87.14	6
Nurse Practitioner	119	117	$76.99	7

72146 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	19,834	$114.88	$78.53	600
Florida	16,537	$119.29	$91.18	484
Texas	15,919	$99.70	$76.57	466
New York	11,888	$122.66	$83.35	318
Illinois	6,699	$88.05	$64.97	275
Ohio	6,641	$81.38	$62.08	191
North Carolina	6,271	$85.47	$66.91	228
Georgia	5,317	$97.27	$75.59	185
Pennsylvania	5,301	$90.48	$66.41	211
Maryland	5,290	$122.59	$87.23	137
Virginia	5,231	$92.33	$67.99	157
Arizona	5,172	$101.38	$77.84	145
Massachusetts	5,118	$95.41	$66.73	166
New Jersey	4,764	$131.17	$90.28	160
Tennessee	4,451	$79.89	$64.30	159
Missouri	4,391	$76.81	$58.84	158
Michigan	4,159	$80.90	$60.64	136
Colorado	3,951	$104.16	$76.02	137
Minnesota	3,552	$93.43	$69.62	149
Oklahoma	3,276	$82.22	$64.61	91
Washington	3,118	$90.50	$65.78	116
Alabama	3,075	$97.90	$80.85	123
Arkansas	2,941	$66.66	$54.19	85
South Carolina	2,826	$93.98	$75.72	107
Indiana	2,427	$79.72	$62.75	95
Louisiana	2,166	$95.91	$78.05	85
Kansas	2,137	$78.07	$61.43	77
Mississippi	1,900	$88.43	$73.75	64
Connecticut	1,781	$99.43	$71.79	71
Wisconsin	1,660	$77.24	$59.35	74
Nevada	1,656	$111.41	$85.24	54
Kentucky	1,563	$86.30	$68.90	63
Utah	1,510	$86.97	$68.42	60
Oregon	1,438	$88.49	$66.93	55
District of Columbia	1,144	$98.86	$68.74	25
Delaware	1,137	$97.72	$73.89	32
Nebraska	1,134	$74.43	$59.48	44
Iowa	1,057	$80.33	$63.27	43
Idaho	807	$76.23	$58.59	26
New Hampshire	734	$72.20	$53.27	32
West Virginia	573	$94.17	$70.79	28
New Mexico	561	$90.84	$69.66	29
Maine	561	$90.98	$68.39	20
Rhode Island	556	$106.73	$77.30	15
Montana	469	$73.17	$54.47	18
North Dakota	439	$66.86	$51.00	22
Wyoming	311	$90.38	$68.60	15
Vermont	303	$73.99	$55.68	15
Alaska	289	$122.72	$75.31	11
South Dakota	288	$66.12	$49.27	13
Hawaii	196	$102.43	$72.72	9
Puerto Rico	76	$71.39	$54.50	2
XX	22	$68.47	$45.32	1
Guam	19	$144.09	$87.96	1
ZZ	15	$64.86	$50.62	1
AA	15	$66.97	$45.03	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
72141Mri scan of upper spinal canal without contrast$108.96
72131Ct scan of lower spine without contrast$53.06
72197Mri scan of pelvis before and after contrast$191.31
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.