How much does Medicare pay for CPT 73020?

Medicare allowed an average of $11.35 per service and paid $8.54 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $50.51, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 73020?

X-ray of shoulder, 1 view. It was billed 49,144 times to 42,125 Medicare beneficiaries by 1,639 providers in 2024.

Does 73020 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $15.41 in an office setting and $7.40 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 73020 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 25,493 services from 1,142 clinicians. Next are Orthopedic Surgery, Portable X-Ray Supplier, Physician Assistant.

CPT 73020

X-ray of shoulder, 1 view

$11.35Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 49,144 services

Providers submitted

$50.51

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$11.35

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$8.54

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $50.51 for this code and Medicare allowed $11.35 — 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 $8.54 (75%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $15.41
Hospital / facility: $7.40

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. 24,260 services were billed in an office setting and 24,884 in a facility.

Services: 49,144
Beneficiaries: 42,125
Providers billing it: 1,639
Total allowed: $557,784

What Medicare pays for CPT 73020

Across 49,144 services billed by 1,639 providers to 42,125 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $11.35 per service. That is 1.2 services per beneficiary, so this is a code patients typically receive more than once. 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 73020

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	25,493	24,443	$7.60	1,142
Orthopedic Surgery	9,514	7,745	$19.28	271
Portable X-Ray Supplier	9,183	5,766	$11.27	54
Physician Assistant	2,157	1,707	$15.29	62
Hand Surgery	555	459	$22.50	10
Interventional Radiology	522	501	$7.39	33
Sports Medicine	503	473	$16.31	16
Family Practice	388	364	$15.17	15
Nurse Practitioner	223	188	$14.39	11
Rheumatology	199	119	$20.28	6
Internal Medicine	93	84	$16.80	5
Radiation Oncology	76	71	$7.55	3
Nuclear Medicine	66	60	$7.06	2
Anesthesiology	46	31	$22.77	2
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	40	37	$21.73	2

73020 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	5,750	$10.75	$8.12	42
California	4,602	$13.74	$9.29	146
Florida	3,404	$11.62	$8.65	132
New York	2,946	$11.02	$7.90	94
Texas	2,114	$11.95	$9.82	79
Illinois	2,044	$10.25	$7.56	63
Ohio	1,954	$10.18	$7.87	75
Pennsylvania	1,872	$12.20	$9.44	81
Alabama	1,659	$13.78	$11.89	60
North Carolina	1,490	$10.73	$8.63	46
New Jersey	1,481	$17.50	$11.76	37
Missouri	1,401	$8.88	$7.14	52
Virginia	1,386	$11.85	$8.93	47
Washington	1,255	$8.41	$6.21	26
Tennessee	1,204	$11.53	$9.64	51
Massachusetts	1,109	$8.54	$6.08	36
Kansas	807	$9.33	$7.86	31
Kentucky	801	$11.22	$9.45	32
Arizona	796	$10.60	$8.42	30
Colorado	784	$10.87	$7.90	39
Minnesota	757	$8.40	$6.36	38
Oklahoma	731	$11.65	$9.55	21
Michigan	680	$10.61	$8.13	37
Mississippi	651	$8.51	$7.04	27
Iowa	611	$10.04	$8.07	23
Louisiana	580	$10.40	$8.36	26
Arkansas	566	$13.39	$11.16	26
Georgia	562	$12.95	$9.76	27
South Carolina	503	$13.18	$10.56	21
Nebraska	461	$7.31	$6.18	20
West Virginia	460	$12.74	$10.48	13
Idaho	454	$12.31	$9.95	18
District of Columbia	382	$8.66	$5.96	10
Wisconsin	369	$10.45	$7.57	17
Indiana	354	$12.29	$10.08	17
Nevada	299	$11.25	$8.74	10
Delaware	265	$12.99	$10.54	11
Oregon	262	$11.61	$8.74	16
Hawaii	221	$7.35	$5.36	2
Connecticut	158	$10.71	$8.00	9
Montana	143	$8.71	$6.72	9
Wyoming	115	$15.73	$12.25	4
North Dakota	103	$11.61	$8.82	6
Maine	98	$7.44	$5.21	6
Utah	96	$9.30	$7.29	6
Vermont	91	$8.00	$5.43	4
South Dakota	78	$14.56	$11.63	5
Rhode Island	74	$9.32	$7.06	3
New Mexico	54	$12.64	$16.50	2
Alaska	38	$9.50	$5.00	2
AP	29	$7.01	$5.77	1
Puerto Rico	25	$13.70	$10.85	2
New Hampshire	15	$7.43	$5.72	1

Related codes

73030X-ray of shoulder$22.04
73080X-ray of elbow$16.52
73060X-ray of upper arm$11.37
73090X-ray of forearm$10.89
73070X-ray of elbow$16.13
73010X-ray of shoulder blade$22.56
73000X-ray of collar bone$17.88
73050X-ray of both collar bones joints$26.32
73040Review by radiologist of shoulder joint image$119.55

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.