How much does Medicare pay for CPT 78708?

Medicare allowed an average of $75.26 per service and paid $57.67 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $359.95, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 78708?

Nuclear medicine study of kidney, blood, flow, and function with drug administration. It was billed 7,763 times to 7,451 Medicare beneficiaries by 376 providers in 2024.

Does 78708 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $150.84 in an office setting and $54.78 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 78708 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 5,835 services from 292 clinicians. Next are Nuclear Medicine, Interventional Radiology, Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF).

CPT 78708

Nuclear medicine study of kidney, blood, flow, and function with drug administration

$75.26Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 7,763 services

Providers submitted

$359.95

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$75.26

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$57.67

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $359.95 for this code and Medicare allowed $75.26 — 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 $57.67 (77%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $150.84
Hospital / facility: $54.78

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. 1,655 services were billed in an office setting and 6,108 in a facility.

Services: 7,763
Beneficiaries: 7,451
Providers billing it: 376
Total allowed: $584,243

What Medicare pays for CPT 78708

Across 7,763 services billed by 376 providers to 7,451 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $75.26 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 78708

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	5,835	5,612	$72.80	292
Nuclear Medicine	1,736	1,672	$81.50	74
Interventional Radiology	94	93	$93.29	5
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	49	28	$104.28	2
Internal Medicine	20	18	$124.21	1
Family Practice	15	15	$60.48	1
Radiation Oncology	14	13	$52.50	1

78708 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
Florida	1,049	$86.69	$66.67	38
California	824	$72.76	$50.83	40
Texas	489	$73.22	$56.63	22
Illinois	451	$76.44	$58.53	18
New York	435	$98.28	$65.35	22
Pennsylvania	400	$63.24	$47.79	17
Ohio	328	$61.45	$47.07	13
North Carolina	272	$58.90	$46.80	17
Massachusetts	270	$56.78	$40.88	14
Maryland	270	$159.90	$115.56	10
Colorado	257	$62.28	$46.07	10
Virginia	227	$58.45	$44.66	11
Arizona	202	$118.81	$95.13	11
New Jersey	197	$94.41	$68.21	12
Missouri	150	$52.56	$41.86	9
Wisconsin	145	$51.46	$42.07	8
Michigan	145	$53.94	$39.26	10
Georgia	123	$53.20	$40.47	6
South Carolina	105	$52.32	$41.35	4
Minnesota	103	$76.15	$58.54	7
Indiana	100	$51.77	$41.42	5
Arkansas	98	$61.03	$52.97	4
Oklahoma	97	$53.00	$39.65	6
Tennessee	94	$77.24	$63.17	7
Iowa	93	$51.22	$39.91	6
Louisiana	88	$51.55	$42.66	5
Oregon	79	$65.38	$52.00	4
Washington	75	$55.43	$40.19	5
Delaware	75	$84.04	$64.81	3
New Mexico	74	$54.90	$40.96	3
Nevada	64	$169.04	$128.66	3
Kansas	59	$52.95	$41.74	3
South Dakota	49	$53.01	$41.25	4
Rhode Island	45	$56.17	$42.89	3
Alabama	45	$52.50	$41.18	3
Connecticut	36	$93.66	$71.65	3
Utah	34	$53.40	$40.46	2
District of Columbia	30	$57.01	$41.79	2
West Virginia	27	$53.52	$37.34	2
Nebraska	17	$51.57	$42.81	1
New Hampshire	16	$54.28	$34.99	1
Vermont	15	$53.17	$40.25	1
Idaho	11	$51.60	$42.74	1

Related codes

78709Nuclear medicine studies of kidney$119.04

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.