How much does Medicare pay for CPT 78306?

Medicare allowed an average of $70.29 per service and paid $54.06 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $330.42, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 78306?

Nuclear medicine study of bone and/or joint whole body. It was billed 104,849 times to 97,669 Medicare beneficiaries by 2,727 providers in 2024.

Does 78306 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $188.88 in an office setting and $38.20 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 78306 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 80,738 services from 2,317 clinicians. Next are Nuclear Medicine, Interventional Radiology, Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF).

CPT 78306

Nuclear medicine study of bone and/or joint whole body

$70.29Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 104,849 services

Providers submitted

$330.42

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$70.29

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$54.06

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $330.42 for this code and Medicare allowed $70.29 — 4.7× 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 $54.06 (77%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $188.88
Hospital / facility: $38.20

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. 22,327 services were billed in an office setting and 82,522 in a facility.

Services: 104,849
Beneficiaries: 97,669
Providers billing it: 2,727
Total allowed: $7,369,836

What Medicare pays for CPT 78306

Across 104,849 services billed by 2,727 providers to 97,669 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $70.29 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 78306

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	80,738	75,591	$68.39	2,317
Nuclear Medicine	19,953	18,419	$63.81	300
Interventional Radiology	1,849	1,744	$84.76	49
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	1,141	873	$215.58	23
Radiation Oncology	328	299	$53.52	4
Medical Oncology	206	147	$200.20	5
Hematology-Oncology	174	160	$210.60	9
Internal Medicine	144	135	$140.26	7
Orthopedic Surgery	65	64	$207.94	2
Urology	51	51	$210.86	3
Family Practice	49	39	$171.41	2
Emergency Medicine	45	43	$178.08	2
Cardiology	45	45	$232.41	1
Pathology	28	26	$38.30	1
Geriatric Medicine	18	18	$38.27	1

78306 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	10,794	$79.81	$62.82	189
California	6,939	$78.73	$55.26	197
Florida	6,899	$120.63	$95.34	169
New York	6,096	$84.08	$58.27	137
Pennsylvania	5,109	$48.99	$36.70	130
Illinois	5,002	$53.16	$40.07	131
North Carolina	4,693	$51.82	$40.99	99
Ohio	4,099	$50.91	$39.93	78
Virginia	3,808	$56.04	$42.08	79
New Jersey	3,434	$109.72	$76.31	92
Massachusetts	3,063	$48.57	$34.83	73
Missouri	2,837	$39.27	$30.98	73
Michigan	2,790	$42.92	$32.33	61
Washington	2,600	$68.05	$49.51	64
Arkansas	2,523	$119.79	$107.65	35
Tennessee	2,242	$62.51	$51.72	83
Maryland	2,186	$122.75	$90.00	48
Georgia	1,949	$50.34	$39.64	66
Indiana	1,880	$42.87	$33.69	63
Arizona	1,807	$132.24	$105.23	48
Alabama	1,695	$70.75	$60.64	69
Kentucky	1,590	$45.16	$36.30	50
Colorado	1,523	$43.48	$32.53	33
South Carolina	1,516	$39.84	$31.63	49
Oregon	1,451	$44.64	$34.22	44
Mississippi	1,341	$58.62	$50.36	47
Oklahoma	1,314	$42.44	$33.39	42
Wisconsin	1,292	$40.00	$31.09	37
Connecticut	1,290	$65.78	$49.06	32
Kansas	1,239	$66.57	$53.95	39
Minnesota	1,139	$52.03	$38.43	53
Nebraska	1,077	$103.27	$86.35	36
Iowa	910	$54.33	$43.08	29
Nevada	734	$153.38	$120.32	30
Louisiana	732	$44.97	$36.34	33
District of Columbia	598	$40.73	$28.47	9
West Virginia	580	$37.23	$28.92	30
Delaware	527	$74.60	$57.90	7
New Hampshire	428	$37.72	$28.82	17
Idaho	397	$36.12	$28.71	14
South Dakota	362	$36.82	$27.94	11
New Mexico	354	$73.94	$58.99	12
Maine	325	$38.34	$27.30	13
Rhode Island	286	$38.49	$28.27	6
Vermont	256	$37.05	$27.52	9
Montana	196	$37.69	$28.99	12
North Dakota	178	$37.02	$26.94	9
Hawaii	177	$37.97	$29.09	8
Alaska	164	$97.53	$60.34	9
Utah	115	$36.74	$29.43	6
Wyoming	110	$37.46	$27.95	7
Puerto Rico	79	$171.63	$123.15	5
Guam	78	$295.72	$200.28	2
XX	21	$39.77	$29.14	1
AA	14	$34.51	$24.15	1
AP	11	$38.49	$30.56	1

Related codes

78315Nuclear medicine study of bone taken at different times$99.43

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.