CPT 74246
Double contrast x-ray of upper digestive tract
Asking price, not received
The fee schedule figure
Balance is patient coinsurance
Providers submitted an average of $236.08 for this code and Medicare allowed $63.10 — 3.7× 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 $47.07 (75%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.
Office pays differently to hospital
- Office / non-facility
- $118.39
- Hospital / facility
- $41.00
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. 3,693 services were billed in an office setting and 9,243 in a facility.
- Services
- 12,936
- Beneficiaries
- 12,784
- Providers billing it
- 672
- Total allowed
- $816,262
Medicare Part B, 2024
Services × allowed amount
What Medicare pays for CPT 74246
Across 12,936 services billed by 672 providers to 12,784 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $63.10 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 74246
| Specialty | Services | Beneficiaries | Avg allowed | Providers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diagnostic Radiology | 11,470 | 11,398 | $60.47 | 606 |
| Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF) | 518 | 511 | $119.46 | 15 |
| Interventional Radiology | 280 | 278 | $45.07 | 18 |
| Physician Assistant | 210 | 210 | $39.86 | 14 |
| General Surgery | 207 | 147 | $120.96 | 5 |
| Nurse Practitioner | 124 | 113 | $57.25 | 8 |
| Internal Medicine | 58 | 58 | $81.16 | 3 |
| Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology | 47 | 47 | $41.24 | 1 |
| Nuclear Medicine | 11 | 11 | $43.03 | 1 |
| Family Practice | 11 | 11 | $40.71 | 1 |
74246 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 | 1,437 | $76.16 | $57.40 | 64 |
| California | 1,234 | $73.31 | $48.93 | 65 |
| Pennsylvania | 1,059 | $46.16 | $32.84 | 59 |
| New York | 721 | $95.40 | $63.46 | 28 |
| Virginia | 673 | $45.70 | $34.37 | 34 |
| Florida | 623 | $67.70 | $51.18 | 36 |
| Massachusetts | 543 | $47.28 | $32.11 | 33 |
| Ohio | 538 | $42.81 | $31.37 | 21 |
| Arizona | 477 | $102.98 | $78.77 | 17 |
| Illinois | 412 | $58.11 | $40.99 | 26 |
| Maryland | 394 | $98.54 | $71.48 | 14 |
| North Carolina | 369 | $64.46 | $49.75 | 22 |
| Tennessee | 357 | $49.36 | $38.87 | 22 |
| Georgia | 351 | $54.47 | $42.92 | 22 |
| Washington | 329 | $54.89 | $39.35 | 17 |
| Kentucky | 288 | $39.35 | $28.95 | 16 |
| New Jersey | 281 | $120.58 | $85.13 | 20 |
| West Virginia | 256 | $44.36 | $33.25 | 10 |
| Alabama | 238 | $43.67 | $33.71 | 14 |
| Missouri | 223 | $75.22 | $59.87 | 11 |
| Indiana | 195 | $39.43 | $29.45 | 11 |
| Arkansas | 184 | $37.94 | $30.26 | 11 |
| Michigan | 178 | $37.92 | $28.37 | 12 |
| Louisiana | 165 | $39.00 | $28.88 | 9 |
| New Hampshire | 150 | $41.48 | $30.92 | 7 |
| Nebraska | 143 | $38.20 | $30.08 | 7 |
| Oregon | 119 | $63.01 | $47.80 | 5 |
| Connecticut | 116 | $70.99 | $52.84 | 4 |
| Delaware | 103 | $83.66 | $55.51 | 6 |
| Colorado | 85 | $42.70 | $29.07 | 4 |
| New Mexico | 75 | $38.69 | $29.00 | 3 |
| South Carolina | 71 | $40.01 | $30.38 | 5 |
| Rhode Island | 70 | $39.19 | $29.84 | 4 |
| Iowa | 60 | $55.14 | $42.28 | 4 |
| Vermont | 60 | $39.84 | $28.75 | 2 |
| Nevada | 50 | $109.45 | $80.02 | 4 |
| Montana | 47 | $41.21 | $30.16 | 3 |
| Oklahoma | 45 | $39.34 | $31.25 | 4 |
| Kansas | 43 | $66.13 | $50.96 | 3 |
| Utah | 39 | $33.44 | $25.76 | 3 |
| Wisconsin | 31 | $40.35 | $29.74 | 2 |
| Mississippi | 27 | $38.95 | $29.71 | 2 |
| Idaho | 27 | $39.51 | $29.44 | 2 |
| District of Columbia | 25 | $86.27 | $64.04 | 2 |
| Alaska | 14 | $54.30 | $27.25 | 1 |
| Hawaii | 11 | $133.48 | $97.96 | 1 |
Related codes
- 74230Imaging for evaluation of swallowing function$30.38
- 74220Single contrast x-ray of esophagus$35.23
- 74221Double contrast x-ray of esophagus$49.22
- 74240Single contrast x-ray of upper digestive tract$66.13
- 74250Single contrast x-ray of small intestine$38.13
- 74261Diagnostic ct scan of large intestine without contrast$161.07
- 74270Single contrast x-ray of large intestine$64.16
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.