How much does Medicare pay for CPT 76881?

Medicare allowed an average of $51.91 per service and paid $39.68 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $242.21, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 76881?

Complete ultrasound scan of joint. It was billed 154,703 times to 86,056 Medicare beneficiaries by 1,504 providers in 2024.

Does 76881 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $52.40 in an office setting and $41.79 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 76881 most?

Rheumatology, with 34,544 services from 207 clinicians. Next are Diagnostic Radiology, Podiatry, Internal Medicine.

CPT 76881

Complete ultrasound scan of joint

$51.91Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 154,703 services

Providers submitted

$242.21

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$51.91

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$39.68

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $242.21 for this code and Medicare allowed $51.91 — 4.7× 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 $39.68 (76%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $52.40
Hospital / facility: $41.79

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. 147,525 services were billed in an office setting and 7,178 in a facility.

Services: 154,703
Beneficiaries: 86,056
Providers billing it: 1,504
Total allowed: $8,030,633

What Medicare pays for CPT 76881

Across 154,703 services billed by 1,504 providers to 86,056 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $51.91 per service. That is 1.8 services per beneficiary, so this is a code patients typically receive more than once. 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 76881

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Rheumatology	34,544	16,132	$47.63	207
Diagnostic Radiology	16,177	13,220	$47.55	348
Podiatry	15,911	8,573	$53.21	185
Internal Medicine	14,544	5,063	$55.86	55
Orthopedic Surgery	12,077	7,221	$55.25	115
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	11,790	7,807	$53.47	94
General Practice	8,682	3,168	$55.23	18
Family Practice	7,951	3,755	$55.92	72
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation	6,280	4,230	$54.25	106
Physician Assistant	3,927	2,656	$43.88	55
Neurology	3,500	2,152	$54.22	21
Sports Medicine	3,034	2,618	$51.60	70
Interventional Radiology	2,446	815	$57.35	4
Nurse Practitioner	2,292	1,443	$46.96	23
Anesthesiology	2,018	814	$54.34	10

76881 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	58,521	$55.96	$39.75	286
Florida	15,220	$52.67	$38.23	133
New York	10,229	$56.32	$37.72	118
North Carolina	7,231	$43.59	$33.90	48
Maryland	5,514	$55.52	$38.43	45
Arizona	5,224	$37.21	$27.79	59
Michigan	4,506	$45.82	$33.13	73
Louisiana	4,359	$49.60	$39.68	15
Illinois	4,296	$53.48	$37.04	51
Virginia	3,853	$48.55	$35.26	40
Texas	3,349	$48.12	$35.75	67
New Jersey	3,262	$54.50	$37.84	43
Pennsylvania	2,795	$48.65	$35.64	47
Missouri	2,122	$48.95	$36.98	26
Oregon	2,108	$49.00	$35.55	26
South Carolina	1,800	$50.51	$39.03	19
Washington	1,702	$53.82	$37.47	41
Indiana	1,610	$38.66	$28.41	28
Tennessee	1,203	$37.95	$29.00	19
Georgia	1,189	$49.41	$37.61	30
Ohio	1,172	$47.53	$35.53	30
Wisconsin	981	$26.48	$19.76	24
Kentucky	976	$49.78	$38.42	13
Minnesota	896	$49.53	$34.51	23
Alabama	888	$46.65	$37.68	22
Idaho	880	$47.53	$37.40	12
Utah	823	$50.04	$38.51	14
Puerto Rico	777	$50.91	$35.41	16
Massachusetts	764	$50.86	$34.38	19
Nevada	735	$48.71	$36.71	11
West Virginia	704	$45.17	$38.08	6
New Mexico	493	$51.78	$38.77	11
XX	489	$57.65	$40.63	1
Delaware	466	$43.73	$32.44	8
Wyoming	463	$40.12	$29.83	3
District of Columbia	427	$57.21	$39.27	5
New Hampshire	400	$50.39	$36.46	7
Colorado	363	$52.00	$37.24	12
Connecticut	313	$55.39	$39.37	7
Iowa	252	$45.92	$34.81	6
Kansas	210	$49.16	$39.00	7
North Dakota	201	$32.95	$24.58	5
Rhode Island	187	$42.83	$30.12	5
Nebraska	145	$41.73	$32.22	1
Arkansas	117	$42.58	$36.10	4
Hawaii	85	$53.96	$38.11	3
Oklahoma	80	$47.69	$38.39	4
Vermont	74	$47.37	$33.39	2
Mississippi	64	$47.39	$36.01	3
South Dakota	57	$45.74	$36.08	2
Montana	56	$52.57	$37.86	2
Alaska	36	$68.50	$41.19	1
Maine	36	$66.18	$39.25	1

Related codes

76856Complete ultrasound scan of pelvis$80.52
76830Ultrasound scan of uterus$88.51
76882Limited ultrasound scan of joint or other extremity structure except b$47.73
76872Ultrasound scan of pelvic region through rectum$93.36
76857Limited ultrasound scan of pelvis$43.46
76870Ultrasound scan of scrotum$55.05
76883Comprehensive ultrasound scan of entire length of nerves in extremity$67.00
76873Ultrasound scan of prostate through rectum$129.46
76800Ultrasound scan of spinal canal$160.15

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.