How much does Medicare pay for CPT 74181?

Medicare allowed an average of $93.69 per service and paid $71.17 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $626.59, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 74181?

Mri scan of abdomen without contrast. It was billed 56,186 times to 54,955 Medicare beneficiaries by 2,569 providers in 2024.

Does 74181 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $161.65 in an office setting and $67.86 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 74181 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 52,852 services from 2,413 clinicians. Next are Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF), Interventional Radiology, Nuclear Medicine.

CPT 74181

Mri scan of abdomen without contrast

$93.69Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 56,186 services

Providers submitted

$626.59

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$93.69

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$71.17

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $626.59 for this code and Medicare allowed $93.69 — 6.7× 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 $71.17 (76%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $161.65
Hospital / facility: $67.86

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. 15,471 services were billed in an office setting and 40,715 in a facility.

Services: 56,186
Beneficiaries: 54,955
Providers billing it: 2,569
Total allowed: $5,264,066

What Medicare pays for CPT 74181

Across 56,186 services billed by 2,569 providers to 54,955 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $93.69 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 74181

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	52,852	51,702	$91.01	2,413
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	1,998	1,949	$164.40	96
Interventional Radiology	992	976	$80.19	45
Nuclear Medicine	165	154	$136.18	5
Undefined Physician type	59	57	$139.76	2
Internal Medicine	46	44	$138.29	3
Pediatric Medicine	28	27	$70.40	1
Family Practice	13	13	$135.59	1
Geriatric Medicine	11	11	$185.89	1
Psychiatry	11	11	$65.50	1
Radiation Oncology	11	11	$190.19	1

74181 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	9,517	$105.08	$69.96	411
Florida	5,202	$104.39	$77.76	234
Texas	4,222	$83.92	$63.43	191
New York	4,218	$129.51	$85.14	156
Illinois	2,519	$77.32	$56.38	138
Pennsylvania	2,409	$82.15	$59.65	107
Massachusetts	2,215	$97.08	$66.45	90
Maryland	2,120	$113.79	$80.73	89
North Carolina	1,696	$82.76	$63.83	75
New Jersey	1,693	$111.79	$76.25	78
Ohio	1,498	$81.12	$60.20	61
Arizona	1,438	$100.66	$75.69	54
Georgia	1,349	$78.26	$58.20	66
Washington	1,241	$84.07	$59.50	58
Virginia	1,150	$83.19	$61.86	55
Missouri	1,014	$75.52	$57.50	47
Minnesota	1,003	$74.78	$54.27	54
South Carolina	900	$73.07	$56.42	41
Tennessee	799	$76.91	$58.33	43
Nevada	773	$114.36	$83.91	33
Indiana	762	$69.55	$53.41	32
Oklahoma	607	$67.28	$51.20	34
Michigan	570	$70.81	$52.45	34
Delaware	558	$87.06	$62.57	19
Arkansas	557	$63.02	$49.24	30
Colorado	550	$69.10	$49.36	31
Louisiana	489	$80.60	$62.87	25
Connecticut	444	$81.26	$57.22	23
Wisconsin	428	$65.11	$49.94	24
Kansas	417	$79.57	$58.66	26
New Mexico	414	$87.43	$63.46	20
New Hampshire	403	$67.92	$48.86	23
Mississippi	322	$68.97	$52.50	17
Kentucky	299	$69.52	$54.40	18
Iowa	279	$83.72	$65.91	13
District of Columbia	263	$123.63	$88.24	11
Oregon	222	$69.36	$52.92	11
Rhode Island	201	$80.57	$58.70	11
Maine	199	$81.45	$57.76	9
Alabama	189	$75.04	$57.51	15
Nebraska	173	$67.82	$53.52	9
West Virginia	141	$65.14	$49.50	10
Vermont	113	$106.24	$74.44	7
Alaska	107	$111.67	$69.06	6
Idaho	99	$136.78	$88.20	3
North Dakota	82	$66.25	$49.81	4
Utah	72	$64.50	$50.23	5
Montana	57	$66.67	$48.02	4
Hawaii	56	$65.81	$47.61	4
South Dakota	53	$65.80	$48.76	4
Wyoming	37	$88.41	$72.64	3
Puerto Rico	19	$66.45	$43.23	1
AA	16	$65.92	$41.39	1
ZZ	12	$63.77	$50.92	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
74170Ct scan of abdomen before and after contrast$127.64
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.