How much does Medicare pay for CPT 74170?

Medicare allowed an average of $127.64 per service and paid $94.84 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $692.51, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 74170?

Ct scan of abdomen before and after contrast. It was billed 47,113 times to 45,223 Medicare beneficiaries by 2,149 providers in 2024.

Does 74170 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $181.27 in an office setting and $63.80 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 74170 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 38,915 services from 1,799 clinicians. Next are Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF), Urology, Interventional Radiology.

CPT 74170

Ct scan of abdomen before and after contrast

$127.64Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 47,113 services

Providers submitted

$692.51

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$127.64

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$94.84

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $692.51 for this code and Medicare allowed $127.64 — 5.4× 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 $94.84 (74%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $181.27
Hospital / facility: $63.80

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. 25,603 services were billed in an office setting and 21,510 in a facility.

Services: 47,113
Beneficiaries: 45,223
Providers billing it: 2,149
Total allowed: $6,013,503

What Medicare pays for CPT 74170

Across 47,113 services billed by 2,149 providers to 45,223 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $127.64 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 74170

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	38,915	37,533	$117.24	1,799
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	3,978	3,769	$212.15	160
Urology	1,569	1,432	$173.21	71
Interventional Radiology	1,534	1,463	$98.39	69
Gastroenterology	312	295	$174.40	14
Nuclear Medicine	192	145	$125.41	7
Physician Assistant	106	100	$165.46	2
Radiation Oncology	96	93	$188.56	4
Internal Medicine	82	81	$168.64	6
Family Practice	70	67	$176.21	3
Hematology-Oncology	69	57	$236.35	3
Emergency Medicine	53	52	$173.74	3
Undefined Physician type	30	29	$70.24	1
Nurse Practitioner	28	28	$165.99	2
Pediatric Medicine	24	24	$155.85	1

74170 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
Texas	4,700	$141.76	$105.88	224
California	4,508	$183.50	$117.46	220
Florida	3,724	$149.38	$114.15	145
New York	2,776	$163.71	$106.04	120
North Carolina	2,765	$114.93	$87.97	108
South Carolina	2,609	$96.90	$75.63	88
Virginia	1,993	$137.27	$100.53	74
Tennessee	1,747	$115.26	$94.04	69
Illinois	1,548	$101.94	$72.64	89
Michigan	1,204	$81.65	$58.89	58
Oregon	1,150	$84.54	$62.50	43
Alabama	1,088	$111.06	$90.61	52
Washington	972	$133.05	$90.79	51
Kansas	935	$94.87	$72.87	37
Arizona	927	$155.45	$117.28	44
Kentucky	889	$99.39	$76.63	44
Maryland	836	$172.68	$116.86	44
Mississippi	836	$94.02	$77.82	40
Missouri	826	$106.14	$81.68	40
Indiana	805	$104.73	$81.63	38
Georgia	778	$99.14	$76.82	40
Massachusetts	731	$95.28	$65.16	40
Louisiana	674	$108.47	$85.73	34
Ohio	664	$81.06	$59.95	38
Wisconsin	655	$78.32	$57.96	31
Pennsylvania	630	$92.58	$67.36	34
Minnesota	588	$107.65	$75.06	27
New Jersey	568	$200.46	$131.97	25
Rhode Island	496	$146.71	$104.84	22
Colorado	428	$132.75	$93.06	26
Nevada	424	$151.27	$114.19	17
Iowa	395	$110.26	$84.50	17
Arkansas	383	$110.54	$90.11	22
Oklahoma	381	$79.92	$62.09	19
Nebraska	376	$111.87	$85.86	18
Connecticut	291	$117.92	$79.71	17
South Dakota	246	$95.11	$67.40	12
Idaho	244	$66.47	$49.95	14
Delaware	236	$148.11	$106.34	11
New Hampshire	227	$88.23	$60.20	14
New Mexico	194	$120.11	$87.04	9
Alaska	137	$173.02	$112.43	5
Wyoming	136	$120.81	$86.64	6
District of Columbia	102	$143.31	$106.72	5
Vermont	79	$62.92	$45.51	4
West Virginia	75	$64.68	$40.76	5
Montana	31	$64.34	$43.28	2
U.S. Virgin Islands	27	$63.30	$45.94	2
Maine	26	$61.00	$47.04	1
Hawaii	26	$166.12	$111.73	2
Guam	16	$264.90	$132.96	1
North Dakota	11	$63.33	$45.32	1

Related codes

74177Ct scan of abdomen and pelvis$105.68
74176Ct scan of abdomen and pelvis without contrast$90.05
74183Mri scan of abdomen before and after contrast$175.35
74178Ct scan of abdomen and pelvis before and after contrast$176.76
74174Ct scan of blood vessels of abdomen and pelvis$117.69
74181Mri scan of abdomen without contrast$93.69
74160Ct scan of abdomen$107.50
74150Ct scan of abdomen without contrast$93.55
74175Ct scan of blood vessels of abdomen$104.72
74185Mri scan of blood vessels of abdomen$211.76

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.