How much does Medicare pay for CPT 78071?

Medicare allowed an average of $154.64 per service and paid $118.11 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $634.79, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 78071?

Nuclear medicine study of parathyroid with spect. It was billed 2,039 times to 1,993 Medicare beneficiaries by 106 providers in 2024.

Does 78071 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $280.32 in an office setting and $54.34 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 78071 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 1,648 services from 87 clinicians. Next are Nuclear Medicine, Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF), Interventional Radiology.

CPT 78071

Nuclear medicine study of parathyroid with spect

$154.64Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 2,039 services

Providers submitted

$634.79

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$154.64

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$118.11

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $634.79 for this code and Medicare allowed $154.64 — 4.1× 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 $118.11 (76%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $280.32
Hospital / facility: $54.34

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. 905 services were billed in an office setting and 1,134 in a facility.

Services: 2,039
Beneficiaries: 1,993
Providers billing it: 106
Total allowed: $315,311

What Medicare pays for CPT 78071

Across 2,039 services billed by 106 providers to 1,993 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $154.64 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 78071

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	1,648	1,603	$137.28	87
Nuclear Medicine	328	327	$220.92	15
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	39	39	$314.05	2
Interventional Radiology	24	24	$181.95	2

78071 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
Texas	275	$172.79	$138.13	14
Maryland	265	$291.65	$209.64	10
California	220	$130.23	$90.49	10
Florida	207	$199.93	$155.20	11
Pennsylvania	143	$54.55	$41.25	8
Washington	105	$162.20	$123.74	6
New York	91	$292.57	$184.53	4
Michigan	88	$52.56	$41.44	4
Colorado	60	$56.60	$40.60	4
Illinois	52	$53.82	$38.87	2
New Jersey	52	$140.11	$96.66	4
Ohio	51	$166.42	$126.64	3
Massachusetts	45	$148.74	$121.46	3
Mississippi	38	$51.64	$42.63	2
Arizona	38	$206.32	$154.31	2
Indiana	35	$51.98	$38.04	1
Oklahoma	32	$52.87	$39.23	2
Virginia	30	$55.92	$42.66	2
Louisiana	25	$52.85	$42.22	2
Missouri	24	$52.12	$39.30	1
North Carolina	24	$177.30	$130.75	2
Tennessee	23	$161.11	$114.84	2
Rhode Island	22	$51.20	$38.98	1
Alabama	19	$51.74	$38.16	1
Arkansas	17	$52.24	$35.45	1
South Carolina	17	$52.56	$40.22	1
Connecticut	16	$307.14	$250.28	1
Nebraska	14	$55.16	$42.80	1
Oregon	11	$58.12	$34.89	1

Related codes

78072Nuclear medicine study of parathyroid$112.33
78070Nuclear medicine study of parathyroid$63.75
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.