How much does Medicare pay for CPT 73220?

Medicare allowed an average of $239.19 per service and paid $186.03 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $1402.85, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 73220?

Mri scan of arm before and after contrast. It was billed 2,851 times to 2,592 Medicare beneficiaries by 164 providers in 2024.

Does 73220 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $338.81 in an office setting and $99.95 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 73220 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 2,575 services from 150 clinicians. Next are Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF), Rheumatology.

CPT 73220

Mri scan of arm before and after contrast

$239.19Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 2,851 services

Providers submitted

$1402.85

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$239.19

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$186.03

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $1402.85 for this code and Medicare allowed $239.19 — 5.9× 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 $186.03 (78%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $338.81
Hospital / facility: $99.95

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. 1,662 services were billed in an office setting and 1,189 in a facility.

Services: 2,851
Beneficiaries: 2,592
Providers billing it: 164
Total allowed: $681,931

What Medicare pays for CPT 73220

Across 2,851 services billed by 164 providers to 2,592 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $239.19 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 73220

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	2,575	2,353	$226.06	150
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	209	182	$372.67	11
Rheumatology	67	57	$327.53	3

73220 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
Florida	434	$252.84	$204.86	20
New York	301	$259.29	$172.20	14
Texas	278	$201.25	$156.09	15
California	230	$314.16	$217.00	15
Massachusetts	206	$228.01	$153.14	13
Minnesota	158	$354.65	$261.98	9
Pennsylvania	122	$139.55	$103.43	7
New Jersey	115	$417.29	$275.74	6
Missouri	111	$136.11	$107.51	7
Ohio	90	$196.94	$151.70	4
Illinois	81	$133.80	$102.10	4
Arizona	80	$281.03	$218.80	5
Maryland	71	$319.56	$231.59	5
Virginia	71	$346.29	$238.60	4
Michigan	53	$99.47	$73.31	4
South Dakota	39	$95.88	$72.30	3
Alabama	35	$180.49	$160.75	2
Puerto Rico	34	$301.75	$237.92	2
Delaware	31	$225.49	$179.49	2
District of Columbia	31	$377.86	$273.92	2
Connecticut	28	$106.83	$71.44	2
Kentucky	26	$92.35	$51.66	2
North Carolina	26	$93.30	$77.02	2
Nevada	24	$397.08	$303.45	1
South Carolina	23	$93.85	$70.24	2
Iowa	22	$94.89	$76.55	2
Washington	17	$97.70	$75.91	1
North Dakota	16	$96.98	$76.25	1
New Hampshire	15	$99.01	$71.36	1
Kansas	14	$94.14	$70.71	1
Oklahoma	12	$94.88	$76.19	1
Alaska	12	$333.52	$223.23	1
Tennessee	12	$95.14	$75.14	1
Louisiana	11	$383.33	$318.08	1
Montana	11	$98.69	$76.62	1
Nebraska	11	$93.51	$76.04	1

Related codes

73221Mri scan of arm joint without contrast$127.60
73200Ct scan of arm without contrast$77.63
73218Mri scan of arm without contrast$212.48
73222Mri scan of arm joint$197.59
73223Mri scan of arm joint before and after contrast$233.62
73201Ct scan of arm$80.93

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.