How much does Medicare pay for CPT 76882?

Medicare allowed an average of $47.73 per service and paid $35.88 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $155.12, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 76882?

Limited ultrasound scan of joint or other extremity structure except blood vessels. It was billed 255,877 times to 189,468 Medicare beneficiaries by 6,330 providers in 2024.

Does 76882 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $56.81 in an office setting and $32.06 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 76882 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 131,478 services from 4,348 clinicians. Next are Podiatry, Rheumatology, Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF).

CPT 76882

Limited ultrasound scan of joint or other extremity structure except blood vessels

$47.73Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 255,877 services

Providers submitted

$155.12

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$47.73

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$35.88

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $155.12 for this code and Medicare allowed $47.73 — 3.2× 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 $35.88 (75%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $56.81
Hospital / facility: $32.06

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. 161,960 services were billed in an office setting and 93,917 in a facility.

Services: 255,877
Beneficiaries: 189,468
Providers billing it: 6,330
Total allowed: $12,213,009

What Medicare pays for CPT 76882

Across 255,877 services billed by 6,330 providers to 189,468 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $47.73 per service. That is 1.4 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 76882

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	131,478	111,701	$38.94	4,348
Podiatry	34,868	20,076	$61.17	516
Rheumatology	21,904	10,939	$56.46	166
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	10,994	8,666	$42.12	241
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation	8,304	5,153	$61.98	152
Orthopedic Surgery	8,153	4,881	$65.24	119
Interventional Radiology	5,352	4,117	$36.71	142
Family Practice	5,089	3,826	$57.31	132
Neurology	5,003	3,249	$49.97	77
Sports Medicine	4,486	3,598	$59.26	121
Hand Surgery	4,269	3,330	$64.17	63
Pain Management	2,362	649	$67.34	9
Internal Medicine	2,332	1,359	$60.43	52
Physician Assistant	2,249	1,574	$55.69	42
Nurse Practitioner	1,864	1,459	$56.67	18

76882 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	39,766	$56.56	$37.74	780
Florida	36,540	$51.06	$37.92	602
New York	17,767	$51.91	$34.63	401
Texas	11,318	$44.67	$33.13	360
Maryland	11,074	$55.87	$39.25	199
North Carolina	10,043	$40.71	$31.49	198
Arizona	9,272	$47.92	$35.39	174
Virginia	8,878	$48.03	$34.36	183
Pennsylvania	8,349	$40.29	$29.19	267
New Jersey	7,708	$56.78	$38.85	177
Ohio	7,364	$39.23	$32.49	175
Michigan	6,389	$38.68	$27.69	189
Illinois	5,212	$44.68	$31.93	186
Washington	4,892	$45.55	$31.02	167
Tennessee	4,461	$35.75	$27.99	124
Georgia	4,318	$48.19	$37.11	116
Missouri	4,087	$37.34	$28.32	143
Massachusetts	4,028	$39.70	$26.86	155
Louisiana	3,433	$34.75	$26.34	80
South Carolina	3,205	$43.65	$33.37	118
Oregon	3,198	$40.08	$28.65	95
Alabama	3,022	$38.16	$30.63	101
Colorado	2,787	$48.07	$33.44	104
Mississippi	2,658	$41.72	$35.34	53
Indiana	2,638	$45.64	$35.37	88
Nevada	2,387	$43.63	$32.85	66
Minnesota	2,267	$40.76	$29.70	96
Iowa	2,067	$40.04	$30.21	67
West Virginia	2,021	$35.53	$26.85	52
Kansas	1,948	$40.17	$30.70	71
Wisconsin	1,887	$43.01	$31.85	72
New Mexico	1,853	$55.49	$42.68	45
District of Columbia	1,716	$59.44	$39.59	18
Connecticut	1,686	$46.76	$33.15	46
Oklahoma	1,633	$34.55	$26.40	60
Utah	1,537	$54.35	$41.95	48
Idaho	1,376	$41.76	$31.93	43
Nebraska	1,343	$39.69	$30.88	48
Kentucky	1,332	$39.03	$29.39	53
New Hampshire	1,237	$44.51	$32.08	51
Delaware	1,013	$42.91	$29.67	26
Arkansas	880	$34.08	$26.91	37
Hawaii	842	$57.10	$39.13	22
Montana	779	$46.22	$32.90	29
Rhode Island	697	$48.18	$34.14	31
Alaska	628	$51.59	$29.61	19
North Dakota	532	$31.89	$23.64	20
South Dakota	529	$32.31	$24.11	21
Wyoming	413	$41.44	$30.92	16
Vermont	396	$31.05	$21.99	15
Maine	339	$39.88	$28.46	19
Puerto Rico	75	$29.40	$21.79	2
AP	57	$45.50	$27.88	2

Related codes

76856Complete ultrasound scan of pelvis$80.52
76830Ultrasound scan of uterus$88.51
76872Ultrasound scan of pelvic region through rectum$93.36
76881Complete ultrasound scan of joint$51.91
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.