How much does Medicare pay for CPT 79101?

Medicare allowed an average of $101.82 per service and paid $77.40 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $521.27, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 79101?

Radioactive drug therapy through a vein. It was billed 11,691 times to 7,139 Medicare beneficiaries by 311 providers in 2024.

Does 79101 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $126.51 in an office setting and $91.90 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 79101 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 5,312 services from 150 clinicians. Next are Nuclear Medicine, Radiation Oncology, Interventional Radiology.

CPT 79101

Radioactive drug therapy through a vein

$101.82Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 11,691 services

Providers submitted

$521.27

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$101.82

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$77.40

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $521.27 for this code and Medicare allowed $101.82 — 5.1× 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 $77.40 (76%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $126.51
Hospital / facility: $91.90

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. 3,351 services were billed in an office setting and 8,340 in a facility.

Services: 11,691
Beneficiaries: 7,139
Providers billing it: 311
Total allowed: $1,190,378

What Medicare pays for CPT 79101

Across 11,691 services billed by 311 providers to 7,139 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $101.82 per service. That is 1.6 services per beneficiary, so this is a code patients typically receive more than once. 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 79101

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	5,312	3,420	$95.91	150
Nuclear Medicine	4,378	2,829	$101.94	111
Radiation Oncology	1,781	744	$118.01	43
Interventional Radiology	108	80	$94.02	3
Medical Oncology	45	17	$132.36	1
Hematology-Oncology	42	26	$146.25	2
Internal Medicine	25	23	$86.92	1

79101 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	1,218	$107.98	$74.61	34
Texas	826	$100.30	$76.92	19
New York	785	$95.37	$67.63	22
Florida	648	$108.26	$82.33	16
Minnesota	589	$91.69	$66.23	17
Pennsylvania	560	$109.08	$81.36	15
Massachusetts	514	$96.01	$68.16	15
Arizona	449	$129.98	$101.82	10
Washington	420	$113.16	$78.93	10
Maryland	418	$111.15	$81.70	8
North Carolina	361	$91.49	$69.06	12
Virginia	346	$123.82	$90.40	7
Indiana	336	$91.56	$70.26	7
Ohio	332	$90.10	$67.29	8
Illinois	318	$92.47	$67.77	9
Tennessee	311	$87.83	$69.05	8
Kansas	274	$95.65	$76.54	4
Wisconsin	264	$86.79	$68.05	11
Colorado	247	$100.06	$76.14	7
Michigan	218	$110.95	$87.65	6
New Jersey	205	$123.76	$89.35	4
Georgia	189	$100.36	$76.52	3
South Carolina	184	$86.80	$68.36	4
Iowa	157	$86.97	$65.85	6
Oregon	154	$93.20	$62.41	6
Oklahoma	148	$90.97	$69.46	4
Kentucky	148	$91.50	$68.36	5
Nebraska	134	$131.75	$109.38	1
Connecticut	95	$94.03	$68.28	2
New Hampshire	93	$84.57	$65.31	2
Alabama	91	$88.30	$67.88	3
Missouri	87	$88.29	$64.35	4
Montana	82	$89.78	$71.57	3
Delaware	72	$90.10	$67.58	2
West Virginia	53	$91.65	$70.37	2
District of Columbia	52	$97.50	$67.43	2
Nevada	52	$144.71	$109.04	2
Arkansas	49	$110.74	$85.42	2
Mississippi	48	$86.77	$64.56	2
Vermont	39	$88.48	$67.64	1
New Mexico	37	$136.57	$113.24	1
Louisiana	36	$88.80	$69.74	2
Rhode Island	33	$93.71	$71.70	2
Hawaii	19	$92.26	$67.75	1

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.