How much does Medicare pay for CPT 76982?

Medicare allowed an average of $63.16 per service and paid $46.55 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $282.84, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 76982?

Ultrasound scan of growth for measuring elasticity, first growth. It was billed 4,905 times to 4,667 Medicare beneficiaries by 103 providers in 2024.

Does 76982 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $78.53 in an office setting and $26.84 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 76982 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 3,953 services from 95 clinicians. Next are Pathology, General Surgery, Endocrinology.

CPT 76982

Ultrasound scan of growth for measuring elasticity, first growth

$63.16Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 4,905 services

Providers submitted

$282.84

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$63.16

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$46.55

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $282.84 for this code and Medicare allowed $63.16 — 4.5× 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 $46.55 (74%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $78.53
Hospital / facility: $26.84

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. 3,447 services were billed in an office setting and 1,458 in a facility.

Services: 4,905
Beneficiaries: 4,667
Providers billing it: 103
Total allowed: $309,800

What Medicare pays for CPT 76982

Across 4,905 services billed by 103 providers to 4,667 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $63.16 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 76982

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	3,953	3,778	$57.52	95
Pathology	456	434	$84.02	2
General Surgery	160	144	$96.71	1
Endocrinology	127	120	$92.30	1
Hematology-Oncology	118	105	$60.63	1
Family Practice	43	41	$104.85	1
Internal Medicine	35	32	$112.76	1
Interventional Radiology	13	13	$99.37	1

76982 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
Tennessee	615	$84.64	$69.86	7
Pennsylvania	524	$63.08	$60.97	6
Arkansas	513	$79.95	$66.59	9
New Jersey	468	$64.61	$64.45	11
Florida	466	$78.33	$60.56	6
Oklahoma	300	$26.36	$19.00	3
California	289	$85.53	$59.17	7
Arizona	182	$26.99	$17.95	6
Texas	179	$79.72	$61.81	3
Kentucky	163	$26.36	$19.90	7
Ohio	163	$26.88	$18.01	4
Wisconsin	154	$26.53	$18.88	8
Massachusetts	153	$70.56	$71.69	2
New Mexico	152	$83.99	$69.29	3
Washington	104	$27.26	$21.23	3
Michigan	92	$28.01	$20.04	5
South Carolina	81	$26.54	$17.16	3
New York	72	$105.34	$71.44	2
Mississippi	55	$26.27	$20.27	3
Georgia	48	$89.74	$72.55	1
Connecticut	48	$66.78	$59.07	1
Minnesota	42	$85.30	$70.87	1
Iowa	28	$27.08	$19.78	1
Maryland	14	$26.37	$21.40	1

Related codes

76942Ultrasonic guidance for needle placement$45.45
76937Ultrasonic guidance for blood vessel access$17.11
76981Ultrasound scan of organ tissue for measuring elasticity$81.38
76998Ultrasonic guidance during surgery$51.66
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.