How much does Medicare pay for CPT 76770?

Medicare allowed an average of $58.76 per service and paid $43.44 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $246.28, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 76770?

Complete ultrasound scan behind abdominal cavity. It was billed 1,193,652 times to 1,128,289 Medicare beneficiaries by 18,664 providers in 2024.

Does 76770 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $86.43 in an office setting and $34.35 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 76770 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 882,264 services from 14,905 clinicians. Next are Urology, Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF), Interventional Radiology.

CPT 76770

Complete ultrasound scan behind abdominal cavity

$58.76Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 1,193,652 services

Providers submitted

$246.28

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$58.76

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$43.44

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $246.28 for this code and Medicare allowed $58.76 — 4.2× 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 $43.44 (74%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $86.43
Hospital / facility: $34.35

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. 559,545 services were billed in an office setting and 634,107 in a facility.

Services: 1,193,652
Beneficiaries: 1,128,289
Providers billing it: 18,664
Total allowed: $70,138,992

What Medicare pays for CPT 76770

Across 1,193,652 services billed by 18,664 providers to 1,128,289 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $58.76 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 76770

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	882,264	861,019	$48.35	14,905
Urology	133,278	108,560	$96.59	1,258
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	66,323	55,644	$86.53	571
Interventional Radiology	37,908	36,968	$50.59	662
Internal Medicine	18,131	15,244	$103.91	352
Nephrology	10,629	10,395	$95.03	186
Family Practice	8,762	7,928	$93.82	212
Nurse Practitioner	8,711	7,976	$79.79	127
General Practice	5,407	4,375	$114.87	32
Physician Assistant	3,468	3,191	$77.77	80
Cardiology	3,024	2,929	$107.92	56
Portable X-Ray Supplier	2,190	1,469	$67.06	21
Nuclear Medicine	1,615	1,580	$55.19	37
Emergency Medicine	1,546	1,478	$88.87	21
Pediatric Medicine	1,145	1,106	$64.29	11

76770 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	157,445	$77.59	$50.82	2,022
New York	107,823	$72.75	$47.84	1,227
Florida	87,110	$64.66	$47.50	1,260
Texas	73,680	$55.60	$41.21	1,324
New Jersey	45,541	$84.45	$55.57	650
Pennsylvania	44,212	$45.00	$31.73	755
Illinois	42,825	$51.15	$36.62	759
Massachusetts	42,299	$54.05	$35.49	518
Michigan	40,120	$45.20	$33.91	549
Georgia	38,370	$54.44	$40.50	651
Virginia	34,316	$56.54	$40.67	442
Maryland	34,218	$68.11	$46.84	407
North Carolina	32,872	$48.77	$36.36	628
Ohio	31,156	$38.08	$27.80	526
Tennessee	30,240	$55.43	$42.87	481
Arizona	23,490	$69.00	$50.75	326
Missouri	21,651	$43.07	$32.52	422
South Carolina	19,206	$47.26	$36.14	319
Washington	18,090	$52.85	$35.85	345
Connecticut	17,395	$58.56	$39.82	251
Alabama	17,343	$42.36	$32.90	311
Indiana	17,293	$41.99	$32.10	327
Louisiana	16,660	$47.83	$36.88	273
Minnesota	16,487	$48.59	$34.09	453
Oklahoma	15,270	$39.01	$29.90	208
Mississippi	14,554	$57.51	$46.63	187
Arkansas	14,127	$41.12	$32.15	171
Nevada	13,833	$64.83	$47.14	218
Kentucky	12,059	$45.55	$34.49	197
Colorado	11,957	$52.48	$36.44	296
Wisconsin	11,701	$39.68	$28.69	338
Oregon	8,851	$47.38	$33.71	217
Iowa	8,767	$41.82	$31.62	160
Kansas	7,876	$42.73	$32.41	154
Delaware	6,831	$55.47	$38.57	54
Nebraska	6,034	$43.66	$33.57	134
New Mexico	5,775	$57.82	$41.83	89
West Virginia	5,050	$44.40	$32.35	99
New Hampshire	4,842	$40.72	$28.49	99
Utah	4,339	$48.90	$36.21	119
Rhode Island	3,618	$55.08	$36.90	67
Idaho	3,562	$44.64	$32.40	97
District of Columbia	3,429	$56.31	$37.29	55
South Dakota	3,170	$44.87	$32.32	75
North Dakota	3,165	$37.97	$27.60	53
Hawaii	3,137	$58.63	$39.68	50
Maine	3,132	$39.98	$27.02	85
Alaska	2,065	$64.83	$38.79	36
Vermont	1,573	$41.40	$28.31	31
Montana	1,515	$36.42	$26.18	42
Puerto Rico	1,285	$77.18	$51.86	58
Wyoming	1,229	$54.68	$40.83	33
XX	225	$112.05	$76.65	2
Guam	224	$91.07	$53.17	5
ZZ	219	$33.58	$24.89	2
U.S. Virgin Islands	160	$92.45	$64.17	3

Related codes

76705Limited ultrasound scan of abdomen$35.98
76700Complete ultrasound scan of abdomen$78.56
76775Limited ultrasound scan behind abdominal cavity$44.86
76706Ultrasound scan of abdominal aorta$57.09
76776Ultrasound scan of transplanted kidney$41.96

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.