How much does Medicare pay for CPT 77080?

Medicare allowed an average of $21.30 per service and paid $21.30 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $156.34, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 77080?

Dxa bone density measurement of hip, pelvis, spine. It was billed 2,823,698 times to 2,770,800 Medicare beneficiaries by 16,549 providers in 2024.

Does 77080 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $29.73 in an office setting and $9.15 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 77080 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 2,095,322 services from 9,521 clinicians. Next are Internal Medicine, Endocrinology, Rheumatology.

CPT 77080

Dxa bone density measurement of hip, pelvis, spine

$21.30Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 2,823,698 services

Providers submitted

$156.34

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$21.30

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$21.30

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $156.34 for this code and Medicare allowed $21.30 — 7.3× 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 $21.30 (100%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $29.73
Hospital / facility: $9.15

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. 1,667,182 services were billed in an office setting and 1,156,516 in a facility.

Services: 2,823,698
Beneficiaries: 2,770,800
Providers billing it: 16,549
Total allowed: $60,144,767

What Medicare pays for CPT 77080

Across 2,823,698 services billed by 16,549 providers to 2,770,800 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $21.30 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 77080

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	2,095,322	2,053,486	$19.24	9,521
Internal Medicine	100,791	99,734	$31.06	1,643
Endocrinology	94,471	91,794	$27.72	470
Rheumatology	91,406	91,248	$31.32	594
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	88,079	86,719	$34.36	260
Family Practice	80,667	79,026	$30.47	1,795
Nuclear Medicine	79,028	78,402	$15.46	184
Interventional Radiology	50,659	49,520	$21.08	283
Physician Assistant	45,513	44,701	$15.84	306
Obstetrics & Gynecology	42,596	42,467	$34.76	690
Nurse Practitioner	28,473	28,055	$19.08	484
Orthopedic Surgery	6,046	5,925	$28.65	62
Radiation Oncology	3,379	2,601	$19.05	8
Pediatric Medicine	2,485	2,464	$29.10	15
Emergency Medicine	2,365	2,343	$21.65	16

77080 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	279,642	$28.19	$24.49	1,214
Florida	189,498	$27.55	$27.92	975
Texas	187,216	$21.54	$21.95	1,304
New York	163,603	$28.30	$25.03	790
Pennsylvania	122,377	$13.29	$13.01	411
Illinois	116,725	$15.71	$15.27	617
North Carolina	101,500	$21.55	$22.54	828
Ohio	99,472	$12.00	$12.25	548
Virginia	93,640	$19.62	$19.48	499
Maryland	91,378	$33.83	$31.12	317
New Jersey	89,677	$30.65	$27.58	436
Massachusetts	75,908	$17.42	$16.02	330
Georgia	75,013	$17.51	$18.17	623
Missouri	71,771	$17.73	$18.47	455
Tennessee	68,802	$18.73	$20.28	666
Michigan	63,740	$15.11	$14.95	345
Washington	61,861	$23.16	$21.96	259
Arizona	60,146	$28.72	$29.17	202
Indiana	57,982	$13.49	$14.10	279
Minnesota	50,139	$16.74	$16.60	406
Wisconsin	49,856	$15.79	$16.27	381
South Carolina	49,021	$16.55	$17.55	306
Colorado	42,929	$25.78	$24.45	285
Iowa	39,241	$17.25	$18.37	221
Kansas	35,733	$19.07	$20.50	302
Alabama	35,513	$19.49	$21.45	477
Oklahoma	34,475	$15.90	$17.05	223
Louisiana	32,645	$15.49	$16.71	336
Arkansas	31,949	$16.93	$18.43	232
Kentucky	31,087	$14.81	$15.63	229
Oregon	29,401	$16.71	$16.67	200
Connecticut	26,519	$24.43	$22.79	177
Nebraska	24,856	$18.50	$19.77	193
Mississippi	23,418	$16.94	$18.64	171
Nevada	22,142	$28.62	$28.83	153
Delaware	19,479	$19.23	$19.06	27
Utah	17,174	$16.73	$17.57	146
New Hampshire	16,487	$13.71	$13.43	116
New Mexico	15,225	$21.17	$22.42	70
Idaho	14,589	$13.19	$13.74	75
South Dakota	12,921	$14.73	$14.93	83
North Dakota	12,675	$13.82	$13.87	57
West Virginia	12,047	$12.52	$13.10	108
Rhode Island	11,795	$20.19	$19.17	75
District of Columbia	10,253	$27.44	$23.89	44
Montana	9,666	$14.65	$14.85	46
Maine	9,271	$12.67	$12.25	93
Alaska	8,415	$23.05	$20.03	43
Hawaii	8,151	$28.11	$26.71	39
Vermont	6,684	$10.61	$10.57	27
Wyoming	4,807	$23.27	$24.12	39
Puerto Rico	2,564	$32.60	$32.90	62
Guam	1,507	$41.79	$38.09	3
AP	310	$40.99	$35.23	2
U.S. Virgin Islands	288	$33.29	$34.14	1
XX	284	$9.42	$9.11	1

Related codes

77067Screening mammography$65.10
77063Screening 3d breast mammography$34.08
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
77092Interpretation of trabecular bone score (tbs) and report on fracture r$9.60

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.