How much does Medicare pay for CPT 73721?

Medicare allowed an average of $127.76 per service and paid $95.94 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $944.48, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 73721?

Mri scan of leg joint without contrast. It was billed 684,040 times to 622,415 Medicare beneficiaries by 9,123 providers in 2024.

Does 73721 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $154.38 in an office setting and $62.57 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 73721 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 537,320 services from 5,813 clinicians. Next are Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF), Orthopedic Surgery, Sports Medicine.

CPT 73721

Mri scan of leg joint without contrast

$127.76Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 684,040 services

Providers submitted

$944.48

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$127.76

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$95.94

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $944.48 for this code and Medicare allowed $127.76 — 7.4× 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 $95.94 (75%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $154.38
Hospital / facility: $62.57

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. 485,734 services were billed in an office setting and 198,306 in a facility.

Services: 684,040
Beneficiaries: 622,415
Providers billing it: 9,123
Total allowed: $87,392,950

What Medicare pays for CPT 73721

Across 684,040 services billed by 9,123 providers to 622,415 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $127.76 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 73721

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	537,320	490,380	$117.92	5,813
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	63,472	57,312	$182.91	734
Orthopedic Surgery	62,632	56,230	$152.86	1,863
Sports Medicine	4,948	4,375	$144.62	159
Family Practice	2,590	2,319	$144.12	84
Physician Assistant	2,341	2,078	$133.42	110
Podiatry	2,332	2,169	$148.42	100
Interventional Radiology	2,286	2,040	$103.49	54
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation	1,492	1,358	$158.07	64
Nuclear Medicine	657	611	$95.00	3
Internal Medicine	566	513	$154.95	18
Nurse Practitioner	444	415	$138.72	24
Radiation Oncology	419	395	$96.20	9
Hand Surgery	354	343	$133.50	12
Pediatric Medicine	331	298	$157.19	7

73721 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	88,229	$157.07	$102.38	914
Florida	56,663	$153.79	$115.81	641
New York	55,110	$151.09	$100.86	473
Texas	44,999	$131.07	$100.45	544
Ohio	30,523	$92.40	$70.20	353
Illinois	30,288	$109.35	$79.98	508
New Jersey	24,214	$170.94	$116.00	221
Pennsylvania	23,844	$105.32	$77.89	325
Massachusetts	20,904	$122.49	$84.04	215
Virginia	19,512	$116.27	$84.53	204
North Carolina	17,385	$99.54	$77.94	316
Georgia	17,005	$117.87	$92.41	342
Tennessee	16,982	$100.13	$80.67	303
Maryland	16,707	$160.18	$112.33	123
Colorado	16,618	$126.76	$88.84	226
Arizona	15,625	$143.62	$107.79	148
Missouri	14,931	$99.75	$76.24	164
Washington	13,015	$115.85	$81.23	218
South Carolina	12,331	$110.09	$88.27	175
Minnesota	11,992	$115.95	$84.12	223
Michigan	11,989	$95.11	$70.55	171
Indiana	9,744	$100.73	$78.99	189
Alabama	8,360	$115.34	$94.44	208
Oklahoma	8,086	$98.60	$79.16	108
Wisconsin	7,928	$92.10	$69.41	178
Arkansas	7,195	$74.64	$60.29	114
Louisiana	6,516	$106.89	$87.34	146
Nevada	6,404	$150.32	$112.23	106
Connecticut	6,204	$149.48	$104.35	108
Oregon	5,944	$105.09	$76.85	100
Mississippi	5,850	$107.07	$91.67	101
Kansas	5,393	$101.48	$78.82	88
Kentucky	5,166	$109.77	$89.56	110
Iowa	4,849	$95.13	$74.64	84
Nebraska	4,308	$82.75	$64.50	71
Utah	3,479	$123.56	$94.58	63
New Hampshire	3,099	$100.00	$73.42	73
Idaho	2,926	$83.02	$64.36	32
Delaware	2,800	$137.47	$103.34	29
New Mexico	2,396	$122.65	$97.07	46
Maine	2,004	$101.73	$75.93	37
District of Columbia	1,996	$170.95	$118.82	10
West Virginia	1,887	$67.74	$50.98	42
Wyoming	1,815	$117.42	$85.23	48
Montana	1,766	$105.31	$76.48	46
Rhode Island	1,729	$156.79	$109.51	25
South Dakota	1,491	$90.80	$65.56	36
North Dakota	1,413	$72.65	$53.71	33
Alaska	1,177	$178.27	$117.12	27
Hawaii	1,019	$152.48	$104.80	14
Puerto Rico	975	$117.24	$82.36	20
Vermont	894	$94.44	$70.01	19
Guam	138	$195.70	$119.17	2
AP	121	$156.60	$105.28	2
AA	102	$61.35	$45.58	1

Related codes

73700Ct scan of leg without contrast$61.49
73718Mri scan of leg without contrast$132.74
73720Mri scan of leg before and after contrast$138.52
73701Ct scan of leg$54.85
73723Mri scan of leg joint before and after contrast$189.99
73706Ct scan of blood vessels of lower leg$115.70

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.