How much does Medicare pay for CPT 77021?

Medicare allowed an average of $101.43 per service and paid $79.68 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $662.68, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 77021?

Review by radiologist of mri guidance for needle placement. It was billed 1,682 times to 1,624 Medicare beneficiaries by 74 providers in 2024.

Does 77021 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $176.09 in an office setting and $70.30 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 77021 most?

Urology, with 1,204 services from 55 clinicians. Next are Diagnostic Radiology, Radiation Oncology, Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF).

CPT 77021

Review by radiologist of mri guidance for needle placement

$101.43Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 1,682 services

Providers submitted

$662.68

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$101.43

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$79.68

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $662.68 for this code and Medicare allowed $101.43 — 6.5× 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 $79.68 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $176.09
Hospital / facility: $70.30

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. 495 services were billed in an office setting and 1,187 in a facility.

Services: 1,682
Beneficiaries: 1,624
Providers billing it: 74
Total allowed: $170,605

What Medicare pays for CPT 77021

Across 1,682 services billed by 74 providers to 1,624 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $101.43 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 77021

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Urology	1,204	1,197	$80.34	55
Diagnostic Radiology	295	294	$168.61	13
Radiation Oncology	133	84	$69.70	2
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	34	33	$405.81	3
Neurosurgery	16	16	$67.29	1

77021 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	510	$111.12	$80.31	19
Georgia	235	$67.89	$52.54	10
Florida	214	$106.59	$84.99	10
Arizona	128	$66.99	$52.64	5
Texas	114	$67.52	$51.46	3
Massachusetts	94	$193.20	$140.62	5
Colorado	59	$69.71	$54.40	1
Alabama	55	$64.08	$49.97	3
Tennessee	35	$200.19	$174.79	2
Minnesota	28	$210.01	$163.84	2
Ohio	27	$64.51	$52.45	2
Connecticut	26	$71.44	$52.37	2
Oklahoma	26	$64.02	$53.03	2
Mississippi	25	$69.51	$54.37	1
Hawaii	21	$68.15	$49.96	1
Nevada	16	$67.99	$54.10	1
New Hampshire	16	$73.58	$47.56	1
Utah	14	$68.38	$44.22	1
Illinois	14	$71.03	$54.42	1
New Jersey	14	$483.04	$332.22	1
Oregon	11	$73.23	$53.36	1

Related codes

77067Screening mammography$65.10
77063Screening 3d breast mammography$34.08
77080Dxa bone density measurement of hip$21.30
77014Ct guidance for insertion of radiation therapy fields$70.52
77065Diagnostic mammography of 1 breast$64.22
77066Diagnostic mammography of both breasts$84.05
77002Fluoroscopic guidance for needle placement$90.55
77001Fluoroscopic guidance for insertion or removal of central vein access$21.63
77049Mri scan of both breasts$196.04
77081Dxa bone density measurement of forearm$19.89
77012Review by radiologist of ct guidance for needle placement$69.78
77085Dxa bone density measurement of hip$38.47

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.