How much does Medicare pay for CPT 73521?

Medicare allowed an average of $25.89 per service and paid $18.87 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $101.17, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 73521?

X-ray of both hips, 2 views. It was billed 85,712 times to 77,060 Medicare beneficiaries by 2,639 providers in 2024.

Does 73521 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $31.54 in an office setting and $10.90 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 73521 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 38,419 services from 1,382 clinicians. Next are Orthopedic Surgery, Portable X-Ray Supplier, Physician Assistant.

CPT 73521

X-ray of both hips, 2 views

$25.89Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 85,712 services

Providers submitted

$101.17

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$25.89

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$18.87

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $101.17 for this code and Medicare allowed $25.89 — 3.9× 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 $18.87 (73%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $31.54
Hospital / facility: $10.90

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. 62,273 services were billed in an office setting and 23,439 in a facility.

Services: 85,712
Beneficiaries: 77,060
Providers billing it: 2,639
Total allowed: $2,219,084

What Medicare pays for CPT 73521

Across 85,712 services billed by 2,639 providers to 77,060 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $25.89 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 73521

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	38,419	36,592	$18.53	1,382
Orthopedic Surgery	19,139	17,991	$38.42	707
Portable X-Ray Supplier	15,791	10,860	$23.48	105
Physician Assistant	2,809	2,648	$27.01	113
Rheumatology	2,663	2,564	$37.02	63
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	2,017	1,839	$36.27	68
Interventional Radiology	854	819	$19.57	38
Family Practice	734	694	$32.58	39
Sports Medicine	585	565	$38.27	28
Nurse Practitioner	543	501	$30.67	24
Internal Medicine	395	343	$28.72	18
Pain Management	379	366	$38.84	10
Neurosurgery	318	311	$41.05	5
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation	246	237	$40.53	9
Interventional Pain Management	180	105	$31.59	4

73521 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	10,317	$30.09	$18.91	326
New York	8,322	$27.77	$18.31	172
Maryland	7,539	$23.08	$16.67	71
Texas	5,958	$25.64	$19.27	220
Florida	4,636	$30.31	$22.65	165
Illinois	4,629	$21.76	$15.53	116
Pennsylvania	3,432	$20.89	$14.94	122
Virginia	2,302	$31.96	$22.99	86
Louisiana	2,294	$26.33	$22.32	72
Washington	2,123	$20.19	$13.60	54
Ohio	2,030	$21.29	$16.37	51
South Carolina	2,025	$30.85	$24.08	62
Indiana	2,001	$26.57	$21.04	69
Arkansas	1,818	$18.52	$15.30	52
Michigan	1,787	$25.72	$19.53	62
New Jersey	1,713	$29.58	$20.25	59
North Carolina	1,608	$27.43	$21.38	54
Missouri	1,587	$18.68	$15.05	47
Arizona	1,392	$33.24	$24.83	51
Massachusetts	1,355	$24.91	$16.64	52
Tennessee	1,280	$26.42	$21.61	54
Georgia	1,275	$30.99	$23.94	52
Oklahoma	1,237	$21.77	$17.47	38
Minnesota	1,144	$19.20	$13.18	49
Kentucky	1,091	$23.89	$18.92	48
Mississippi	984	$27.14	$22.13	45
Iowa	865	$22.41	$17.87	29
Wisconsin	789	$26.82	$19.04	32
Oregon	788	$21.71	$14.97	39
Colorado	787	$31.19	$21.27	41
Kansas	681	$19.58	$15.32	29
Hawaii	661	$31.46	$20.89	9
New Mexico	582	$17.97	$13.57	19
Delaware	561	$34.76	$25.60	16
Connecticut	523	$32.82	$23.23	20
Alabama	517	$23.42	$19.51	23
Nebraska	473	$12.57	$9.80	24
Nevada	434	$24.42	$17.00	16
Utah	344	$33.51	$25.19	10
Idaho	271	$15.16	$11.43	9
Maine	224	$12.96	$8.73	11
Montana	198	$30.15	$19.87	9
Puerto Rico	197	$26.45	$19.57	10
North Dakota	196	$11.61	$8.09	9
West Virginia	173	$21.51	$16.38	8
Rhode Island	155	$30.18	$21.76	6
Wyoming	96	$26.80	$19.99	5
District of Columbia	94	$27.26	$17.26	5
Alaska	87	$36.63	$25.27	3
New Hampshire	81	$14.05	$9.73	5
U.S. Virgin Islands	32	$41.09	$27.27	1
South Dakota	24	$10.10	$7.30	2

Related codes

73502X-ray of hip, 2-3 views$26.38
73562X-ray of knee$27.47
73564X-ray of knee$34.42
73560X-ray of knee$18.48
73552X-ray of thigh bone$12.92
73590X-ray of lower leg$10.75
73501X-ray of hip, 1 view$20.45
73522X-ray of both hips$35.14
73565X-ray of both knees while standing$34.99
73523X-ray of both hips$33.99
73503X-ray of hip, minimum of 4 views$47.13
73551X-ray of thigh bone$16.13

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.