How much does Medicare pay for CPT 76981?

Medicare allowed an average of $81.38 per service and paid $61.07 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $274.16, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 76981?

Ultrasound scan of organ tissue for measuring elasticity. It was billed 57,984 times to 55,899 Medicare beneficiaries by 1,803 providers in 2024.

Does 76981 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $95.25 in an office setting and $27.69 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 76981 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 22,376 services from 839 clinicians. Next are Gastroenterology, Nurse Practitioner, Internal Medicine.

CPT 76981

Ultrasound scan of organ tissue for measuring elasticity

$81.38Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 57,984 services

Providers submitted

$274.16

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$81.38

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$61.07

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $274.16 for this code and Medicare allowed $81.38 — 3.4× 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 $61.07 (75%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $95.25
Hospital / facility: $27.69

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. 46,078 services were billed in an office setting and 11,906 in a facility.

Services: 57,984
Beneficiaries: 55,899
Providers billing it: 1,803
Total allowed: $4,718,738

What Medicare pays for CPT 76981

Across 57,984 services billed by 1,803 providers to 55,899 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $81.38 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 76981

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	22,376	22,040	$58.02	839
Gastroenterology	20,984	20,069	$100.84	619
Nurse Practitioner	3,807	3,624	$78.77	99
Internal Medicine	3,294	3,071	$100.68	75
Physician Assistant	1,733	1,658	$83.13	45
Endocrinology	1,560	1,518	$101.20	34
Family Practice	1,340	1,237	$97.76	27
Interventional Radiology	868	859	$60.94	28
Infectious Disease	681	594	$94.80	7
Undefined Physician type	433	415	$108.31	2
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	175	174	$83.56	5
Hematology-Oncology	155	130	$76.70	2
Emergency Medicine	125	123	$91.21	3
Nuclear Medicine	95	57	$60.32	4
General Surgery	93	85	$88.35	3

76981 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	6,458	$95.90	$62.64	177
New York	5,540	$102.80	$68.65	137
Texas	5,335	$84.62	$68.34	142
Florida	4,877	$86.63	$64.59	147
New Jersey	3,766	$95.98	$68.44	112
Arizona	3,250	$87.99	$67.70	62
Pennsylvania	2,994	$58.22	$43.09	94
Ohio	2,354	$67.04	$52.86	68
Mississippi	2,079	$72.89	$63.89	44
Massachusetts	1,935	$78.56	$51.66	68
Virginia	1,570	$79.59	$58.36	63
Illinois	1,567	$66.33	$48.07	59
Maryland	1,518	$95.83	$66.97	56
Georgia	1,412	$70.29	$55.84	54
Alabama	1,346	$84.18	$70.37	34
Tennessee	1,152	$68.06	$53.67	55
Indiana	1,074	$57.09	$46.03	34
Louisiana	833	$83.02	$67.49	25
South Carolina	729	$48.50	$38.08	25
Arkansas	610	$42.47	$37.67	14
Michigan	571	$51.13	$40.28	26
North Carolina	541	$63.96	$48.17	26
Washington	532	$70.74	$50.30	26
Colorado	531	$91.12	$62.88	16
Connecticut	494	$63.54	$47.21	24
Oregon	470	$52.68	$39.32	24
Kentucky	428	$54.59	$45.06	18
Nevada	418	$93.60	$71.92	17
West Virginia	411	$82.75	$70.65	13
Missouri	401	$54.19	$41.34	16
South Dakota	302	$84.17	$62.03	5
Puerto Rico	241	$102.13	$73.95	6
New Hampshire	237	$74.84	$55.72	11
Minnesota	233	$61.68	$45.56	16
New Mexico	232	$47.70	$35.89	10
Rhode Island	219	$80.91	$56.17	13
Oklahoma	212	$54.72	$44.61	10
Alaska	170	$97.80	$63.22	6
Hawaii	136	$98.39	$70.57	5
Delaware	130	$27.50	$18.87	6
Vermont	122	$26.93	$19.60	7
Montana	114	$68.32	$48.78	6
Wisconsin	96	$45.25	$37.20	6
Iowa	73	$54.05	$40.94	4
Maine	64	$61.01	$40.90	3
Kansas	59	$93.06	$75.61	2
Idaho	56	$26.86	$21.32	4
District of Columbia	42	$76.08	$49.45	3
North Dakota	22	$27.08	$20.41	2
Nebraska	17	$25.95	$19.95	1
Utah	11	$94.74	$68.01	1

Related codes

76942Ultrasonic guidance for needle placement$45.45
76937Ultrasonic guidance for blood vessel access$17.11
76998Ultrasonic guidance during surgery$51.66
76982Ultrasound scan of growth for measuring elasticity$63.16
76965Ultrasonic guidance for administration of radiation therapy$69.84
76984Ultrasound of chest aorta during surgery$29.82
76983Ultrasound scan of growth for measuring elasticity$52.08

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.