How much does Medicare pay for CPT 78582?

Medicare allowed an average of $53.09 per service and paid $41.09 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $310.91, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 78582?

Nuclear medicine study of lung ventilation and circulation. It was billed 28,918 times to 28,642 Medicare beneficiaries by 1,070 providers in 2024.

Does 78582 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $254.98 in an office setting and $49.02 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 78582 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 21,983 services from 897 clinicians. Next are Nuclear Medicine, Interventional Radiology, Radiation Oncology.

CPT 78582

Nuclear medicine study of lung ventilation and circulation

$53.09Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 28,918 services

Providers submitted

$310.91

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$53.09

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$41.09

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $310.91 for this code and Medicare allowed $53.09 — 5.9× 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 $41.09 (77%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $254.98
Hospital / facility: $49.02

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. 572 services were billed in an office setting and 28,346 in a facility.

Services: 28,918
Beneficiaries: 28,642
Providers billing it: 1,070
Total allowed: $1,535,257

What Medicare pays for CPT 78582

Across 28,918 services billed by 1,070 providers to 28,642 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $53.09 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 78582

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	21,983	21,791	$52.45	897
Nuclear Medicine	6,420	6,342	$54.55	149
Interventional Radiology	406	400	$59.91	19
Radiation Oncology	56	56	$45.52	2
Pathology	22	22	$47.88	1
Family Practice	17	17	$54.05	1
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	14	14	$229.92	1

78582 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	3,555	$53.31	$38.69	120
Florida	3,070	$56.50	$43.04	107
Texas	1,860	$48.21	$37.42	64
New York	1,840	$52.78	$37.41	55
Maryland	1,726	$62.57	$45.73	37
Illinois	1,608	$49.37	$36.97	67
Ohio	1,243	$52.87	$40.46	40
North Carolina	1,123	$51.79	$41.46	47
New Jersey	906	$51.86	$37.37	33
Tennessee	868	$46.03	$36.69	33
Pennsylvania	817	$48.50	$36.93	32
Arizona	779	$100.20	$79.64	25
Michigan	711	$48.58	$36.55	28
Missouri	631	$47.30	$37.40	31
Massachusetts	629	$61.88	$46.74	28
Indiana	560	$46.14	$36.84	25
Colorado	558	$49.18	$37.14	21
South Carolina	509	$47.18	$37.33	31
Virginia	475	$47.24	$37.52	20
Wisconsin	451	$46.69	$36.51	14
Georgia	407	$48.41	$37.28	23
Alabama	402	$46.34	$36.98	29
Delaware	388	$48.47	$38.03	10
Washington	361	$49.92	$36.46	14
Connecticut	356	$51.07	$36.96	13
District of Columbia	333	$51.98	$37.61	5
Nevada	269	$46.86	$37.15	13
Arkansas	263	$45.79	$37.33	8
Mississippi	258	$46.64	$38.10	11
Kentucky	254	$47.67	$37.95	9
Louisiana	238	$56.83	$46.94	13
Minnesota	218	$48.50	$36.41	11
New Mexico	207	$49.07	$36.62	5
Oklahoma	164	$47.33	$36.68	9
Oregon	158	$64.89	$51.99	3
Iowa	110	$46.73	$37.63	5
Rhode Island	94	$46.33	$38.33	2
Utah	91	$46.54	$37.45	5
West Virginia	88	$46.97	$35.92	5
Nebraska	71	$46.03	$37.22	4
Kansas	70	$48.19	$37.80	3
South Dakota	58	$47.14	$37.64	4
New Hampshire	45	$46.13	$36.99	3
North Dakota	36	$47.47	$37.25	2
Hawaii	33	$47.48	$37.33	1
Montana	15	$47.47	$35.68	1
Idaho	12	$46.15	$38.32	1

Related codes

78580Nuclear medicine study of lung circulation$34.16

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.