How much does Medicare pay for CPT 78070?

Medicare allowed an average of $63.75 per service and paid $48.20 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $428.48, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 78070?

Nuclear medicine study of parathyroid. It was billed 2,548 times to 2,525 Medicare beneficiaries by 99 providers in 2024.

Does 78070 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $262.64 in an office setting and $37.11 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 78070 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 2,217 services from 83 clinicians. Next are Nuclear Medicine, Endocrinology, Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF).

CPT 78070

Nuclear medicine study of parathyroid

$63.75Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 2,548 services

Providers submitted

$428.48

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$63.75

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$48.20

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $428.48 for this code and Medicare allowed $63.75 — 6.7× 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 $48.20 (76%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $262.64
Hospital / facility: $37.11

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. 301 services were billed in an office setting and 2,247 in a facility.

Services: 2,548
Beneficiaries: 2,525
Providers billing it: 99
Total allowed: $162,435

What Medicare pays for CPT 78070

Across 2,548 services billed by 99 providers to 2,525 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $63.75 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 78070

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	2,217	2,194	$55.26	83
Nuclear Medicine	293	293	$105.61	13
Endocrinology	14	14	$245.10	1
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	13	13	$250.92	1
Family Practice	11	11	$207.97	1

78070 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
New Jersey	594	$39.72	$28.82	2
Florida	583	$56.70	$45.11	17
California	214	$126.37	$86.07	12
Texas	116	$83.63	$62.23	7
New York	100	$40.88	$27.42	6
Virginia	87	$35.92	$26.22	4
Pennsylvania	85	$68.53	$46.91	4
Indiana	73	$35.90	$25.24	3
Oklahoma	70	$34.50	$28.68	5
Georgia	65	$35.88	$27.22	3
Arkansas	62	$33.89	$25.69	3
Nevada	61	$259.31	$198.47	4
Tennessee	57	$34.76	$28.18	4
South Carolina	47	$75.77	$63.98	4
Maryland	42	$36.95	$26.38	3
Connecticut	42	$35.94	$29.22	1
South Dakota	40	$35.01	$25.86	2
Colorado	29	$35.79	$25.22	2
Louisiana	22	$131.23	$107.42	2
Minnesota	22	$37.13	$25.32	2
Illinois	21	$262.40	$206.00	1
Mississippi	20	$34.67	$29.53	1
Kentucky	17	$236.76	$210.93	1
North Carolina	14	$245.10	$181.57	1
Washington	14	$36.44	$28.26	1
North Dakota	13	$35.82	$27.03	1
Idaho	13	$34.83	$29.23	1
Arizona	13	$36.90	$29.23	1
Rhode Island	12	$33.32	$27.52	1

Related codes

78072Nuclear medicine study of parathyroid$112.33
78071Nuclear medicine study of parathyroid$154.64
78014Nuclear medicine study of thyroid and thyroid function$69.32

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.