How much does Medicare pay for CPT 77073?

Medicare allowed an average of $32.04 per service and paid $23.81 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $153.08, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 77073?

X-ray for bone length assessment. It was billed 66,535 times to 62,570 Medicare beneficiaries by 1,307 providers in 2024.

Does 77073 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $37.45 in an office setting and $13.20 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 77073 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 32,546 services from 730 clinicians. Next are Orthopedic Surgery, Physician Assistant, Neurosurgery.

CPT 77073

X-ray for bone length assessment

$32.04Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 66,535 services

Providers submitted

$153.08

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$32.04

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$23.81

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $153.08 for this code and Medicare allowed $32.04 — 4.8× 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 $23.81 (74%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $37.45
Hospital / facility: $13.20

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. 51,693 services were billed in an office setting and 14,842 in a facility.

Services: 66,535
Beneficiaries: 62,570
Providers billing it: 1,307
Total allowed: $2,131,781

What Medicare pays for CPT 77073

Across 66,535 services billed by 1,307 providers to 62,570 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $32.04 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 77073

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	32,546	31,480	$26.54	730
Orthopedic Surgery	23,787	21,552	$39.05	362
Physician Assistant	5,587	5,307	$31.76	125
Neurosurgery	1,434	1,211	$31.58	9
Nurse Practitioner	1,331	1,296	$32.75	34
Sports Medicine	514	447	$41.12	8
Interventional Radiology	398	395	$38.66	14
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	374	357	$40.46	11
Pain Management	190	180	$39.05	2
Internal Medicine	121	95	$32.09	1
Anesthesiology	73	73	$42.75	2
Podiatry	44	44	$41.42	1
Family Practice	40	39	$32.83	2
Radiation Oncology	25	24	$32.55	2
Interventional Cardiology	24	23	$50.78	1

77073 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	11,540	$31.71	$19.95	200
New York	5,545	$24.75	$16.22	83
Illinois	5,132	$34.12	$24.75	94
North Carolina	3,427	$33.50	$26.34	60
Florida	3,048	$35.98	$27.46	41
Ohio	2,887	$26.09	$20.40	45
Minnesota	2,550	$42.45	$29.56	50
Tennessee	2,504	$37.18	$30.58	48
Texas	2,310	$40.25	$30.18	43
Pennsylvania	1,941	$23.73	$17.50	40
Kansas	1,907	$28.39	$21.87	35
Maryland	1,809	$32.70	$22.49	34
Massachusetts	1,782	$24.42	$16.61	51
Michigan	1,769	$27.55	$20.47	45
Washington	1,661	$46.27	$30.29	37
Georgia	1,600	$39.30	$29.89	35
Colorado	1,572	$35.65	$24.99	37
Arizona	1,416	$36.63	$28.02	30
Virginia	1,347	$30.84	$22.53	28
South Carolina	1,153	$36.00	$29.26	19
Oregon	1,090	$26.57	$18.40	24
Mississippi	907	$36.90	$31.98	9
Missouri	822	$25.41	$20.75	26
Indiana	722	$37.35	$30.70	12
Alabama	598	$31.95	$26.43	9
Wisconsin	589	$21.22	$15.86	25
Kentucky	481	$35.85	$30.66	8
Connecticut	430	$38.51	$26.95	11
Montana	417	$24.15	$16.48	9
Arkansas	378	$17.30	$14.22	12
Wyoming	360	$43.46	$29.79	5
Oklahoma	315	$19.43	$14.64	10
New Jersey	267	$44.12	$29.32	14
Louisiana	257	$23.52	$18.73	10
South Dakota	247	$13.95	$9.92	8
Hawaii	227	$18.82	$11.64	5
Maine	226	$18.68	$14.08	5
Iowa	181	$19.22	$15.60	6
Vermont	166	$15.77	$10.96	4
Utah	164	$37.18	$28.10	7
New Hampshire	154	$12.80	$9.72	7
Nebraska	141	$15.93	$11.83	4
Idaho	101	$16.29	$13.45	5
Delaware	88	$40.99	$30.61	3
District of Columbia	79	$52.97	$31.63	3
Rhode Island	72	$32.28	$23.23	3
West Virginia	52	$41.86	$30.29	2
Nevada	36	$23.62	$18.01	2
Alaska	30	$51.14	$33.98	1
North Dakota	23	$12.39	$9.46	2
New Mexico	15	$10.47	$8.01	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.