How much does Medicare pay for CPT 79445?

Medicare allowed an average of $110.79 per service and paid $88.21 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $551.67, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 79445?

Radioactive drug therapy through a tube inserted in an artery. It was billed 1,174 times to 983 Medicare beneficiaries by 63 providers in 2024.

Does 79445 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $123.15 in an office setting and $108.63 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 79445 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 590 services from 31 clinicians. Next are Interventional Radiology, Nuclear Medicine, Radiation Oncology.

CPT 79445

Radioactive drug therapy through a tube inserted in an artery

$110.79Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 1,174 services

Providers submitted

$551.67

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$110.79

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$88.21

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $551.67 for this code and Medicare allowed $110.79 — 5.0× 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 $88.21 (80%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $123.15
Hospital / facility: $108.63

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. 174 services were billed in an office setting and 1,000 in a facility.

Services: 1,174
Beneficiaries: 983
Providers billing it: 63
Total allowed: $130,067

What Medicare pays for CPT 79445

Across 1,174 services billed by 63 providers to 983 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $110.79 per service. That is 1.2 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 79445

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	590	477	$111.78	31
Interventional Radiology	491	420	$109.83	27
Nuclear Medicine	58	54	$108.06	3
Radiation Oncology	18	17	$105.87	1
Ambulatory Surgical Center	17	15	$118.16	1

79445 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	261	$113.45	$83.48	12
Illinois	101	$112.28	$83.47	4
Washington	97	$109.33	$84.93	7
New York	77	$120.96	$87.76	4
Florida	72	$104.78	$82.75	4
Massachusetts	52	$111.82	$83.51	4
Georgia	48	$104.85	$83.36	2
Tennessee	44	$100.88	$83.08	2
Arkansas	42	$107.23	$85.17	2
Maryland	38	$107.54	$83.66	2
Mississippi	37	$99.23	$84.08	2
Michigan	29	$106.64	$83.58	2
Louisiana	26	$91.76	$83.45	1
Indiana	25	$101.13	$83.66	2
Pennsylvania	24	$117.35	$83.20	2
Texas	24	$209.40	$166.78	1
Kansas	23	$104.08	$83.30	1
Utah	21	$102.95	$83.45	1
South Carolina	20	$102.42	$83.57	1
Arizona	19	$99.26	$84.73	1
South Dakota	18	$101.85	$83.47	1
North Carolina	18	$101.61	$83.47	1
Wisconsin	16	$103.12	$83.52	1
Missouri	15	$103.90	$83.50	1
Alabama	14	$100.64	$83.48	1
District of Columbia	13	$114.18	$83.46	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.