How much does Medicare pay for CPT 78072?

Medicare allowed an average of $112.33 per service and paid $85.52 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $544.01, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 78072?

Nuclear medicine study of parathyroid with spect and ct scan. It was billed 6,290 times to 6,188 Medicare beneficiaries by 296 providers in 2024.

Does 78072 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $298.00 in an office setting and $71.32 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 78072 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 4,249 services from 221 clinicians. Next are Nuclear Medicine, Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF), Interventional Radiology.

CPT 78072

Nuclear medicine study of parathyroid with spect and ct scan

$112.33Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 6,290 services

Providers submitted

$544.01

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$112.33

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$85.52

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $544.01 for this code and Medicare allowed $112.33 — 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 $85.52 (76%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $298.00
Hospital / facility: $71.32

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. 1,138 services were billed in an office setting and 5,152 in a facility.

Services: 6,290
Beneficiaries: 6,188
Providers billing it: 296
Total allowed: $706,556

What Medicare pays for CPT 78072

Across 6,290 services billed by 296 providers to 6,188 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $112.33 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 78072

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	4,249	4,232	$110.25	221
Nuclear Medicine	1,863	1,853	$111.51	72
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	151	76	$187.76	1
Interventional Radiology	27	27	$74.92	2

78072 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	783	$116.49	$91.00	32
California	719	$238.00	$165.91	29
Illinois	456	$104.02	$80.37	19
Virginia	376	$124.61	$91.08	16
Pennsylvania	373	$71.66	$50.94	17
Florida	327	$95.21	$74.72	14
Ohio	314	$69.98	$51.09	15
Michigan	269	$71.39	$51.02	13
Maryland	231	$136.18	$96.40	11
New York	215	$111.77	$76.69	11
Kentucky	211	$68.89	$50.73	7
Arizona	162	$252.74	$198.67	8
Delaware	123	$70.80	$55.00	4
Colorado	123	$71.89	$52.82	5
South Carolina	118	$68.86	$52.35	6
New Jersey	114	$76.08	$54.71	7
Iowa	109	$68.28	$50.97	7
Georgia	107	$70.34	$50.03	6
Washington	100	$123.44	$81.50	6
Wisconsin	95	$68.67	$51.34	6
District of Columbia	87	$76.45	$53.57	3
Indiana	77	$68.69	$53.09	4
Missouri	77	$69.23	$54.50	5
Minnesota	76	$69.62	$51.61	5
Arkansas	70	$68.00	$52.41	5
Louisiana	64	$67.40	$56.42	2
Tennessee	62	$67.80	$53.57	4
Oregon	54	$72.33	$56.08	1
North Carolina	48	$68.44	$54.35	3
Massachusetts	47	$72.87	$53.60	3
Kansas	33	$178.64	$138.43	2
Utah	31	$68.27	$50.56	2
New Mexico	30	$70.77	$52.71	2
New Hampshire	30	$70.95	$48.41	2
Rhode Island	28	$72.92	$51.97	2
West Virginia	24	$72.32	$53.66	2
Vermont	22	$69.45	$49.94	2
Idaho	19	$68.03	$56.10	1
South Dakota	16	$67.45	$55.28	1
Alaska	13	$97.89	$55.99	1
Maine	12	$74.08	$56.03	1
Alabama	12	$69.53	$55.96	1
Connecticut	11	$79.03	$48.33	1
Nebraska	11	$67.72	$46.28	1
Oklahoma	11	$68.67	$46.23	1

Related codes

78070Nuclear medicine study of parathyroid$63.75
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.