How much does Medicare pay for CPT 74021?

Medicare allowed an average of $22.22 per service and paid $16.49 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $84.48, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 74021?

X-ray of abdomen, minimum of 3 views. It was billed 14,557 times to 13,053 Medicare beneficiaries by 510 providers in 2024.

Does 74021 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $31.32 in an office setting and $12.71 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 74021 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 8,606 services from 397 clinicians. Next are Urology, Nurse Practitioner, Portable X-Ray Supplier.

CPT 74021

X-ray of abdomen, minimum of 3 views

$22.22Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 14,557 services

Providers submitted

$84.48

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$22.22

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$16.49

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $84.48 for this code and Medicare allowed $22.22 — 3.8× 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 $16.49 (74%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $31.32
Hospital / facility: $12.71

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. 7,434 services were billed in an office setting and 7,123 in a facility.

Services: 14,557
Beneficiaries: 13,053
Providers billing it: 510
Total allowed: $323,457

What Medicare pays for CPT 74021

Across 14,557 services billed by 510 providers to 13,053 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $22.22 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 74021

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	8,606	8,080	$15.69	397
Urology	1,999	1,637	$39.60	26
Nurse Practitioner	1,556	1,361	$31.42	18
Portable X-Ray Supplier	1,321	976	$24.56	18
Interventional Radiology	331	296	$12.66	15
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	302	286	$31.87	11
Family Practice	174	165	$33.81	9
Internal Medicine	129	122	$33.27	8
Physician Assistant	57	50	$27.08	2
Emergency Medicine	28	26	$20.06	2
Radiation Oncology	15	15	$40.50	1
Hospitalist	14	14	$12.32	1
Cardiac Surgery	13	13	$42.04	1
General Practice	12	12	$37.33	1

74021 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
Louisiana	1,742	$37.23	$29.46	18
Mississippi	1,544	$30.40	$26.23	17
New York	1,413	$26.46	$18.29	39
New Jersey	965	$24.67	$16.81	43
Illinois	923	$13.20	$9.63	39
Pennsylvania	824	$15.96	$11.16	34
California	764	$19.34	$13.47	34
Maryland	667	$19.31	$14.30	14
Ohio	617	$13.84	$10.47	27
Florida	594	$25.44	$18.77	29
Virginia	391	$19.86	$14.02	19
Nebraska	363	$15.32	$11.36	11
Texas	331	$16.35	$12.36	16
North Carolina	279	$15.18	$11.97	15
Michigan	254	$13.29	$9.95	15
South Carolina	247	$19.70	$16.95	14
Missouri	186	$20.48	$16.27	8
Alabama	182	$22.58	$19.20	9
Arkansas	174	$12.83	$10.49	7
Minnesota	165	$12.53	$9.59	8
Kentucky	141	$14.42	$12.08	6
Massachusetts	140	$18.02	$11.41	8
Oklahoma	135	$15.86	$12.57	7
Colorado	118	$12.43	$9.57	3
Washington	117	$12.77	$9.45	6
Tennessee	113	$27.68	$22.92	7
Georgia	105	$22.64	$16.43	6
Arizona	105	$12.21	$9.81	4
Wisconsin	102	$19.19	$15.34	6
Indiana	101	$12.24	$9.17	3
Delaware	101	$12.52	$9.79	8
West Virginia	88	$11.99	$9.50	4
Kansas	83	$21.09	$17.85	4
Oregon	79	$12.57	$9.57	3
Nevada	75	$12.33	$9.51	3
New Hampshire	73	$13.16	$9.49	1
Iowa	62	$12.02	$9.29	3
Connecticut	49	$13.22	$8.87	3
Wyoming	41	$12.33	$8.70	3
Hawaii	28	$12.78	$8.49	1
Rhode Island	19	$13.11	$9.92	1
Vermont	16	$46.30	$29.42	1
Idaho	16	$12.01	$8.70	1
New Mexico	13	$12.14	$9.12	1
North Dakota	12	$12.08	$9.91	1

Related codes

74018X-ray of abdomen$11.13
74019X-ray of abdomen$14.72
74022X-ray series of abdomen$17.62

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.