How much does Medicare pay for CPT 92979?

Medicare allowed an average of $72.73 per service and paid $58.05 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $288.00, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 92979?

Ultrasound evaluation of heart blood vessel or graft with review by radiologist, each additional vessel. It was billed 9,585 times to 7,973 Medicare beneficiaries by 413 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 92979 most?

Interventional Cardiology, with 6,014 services from 254 clinicians. Next are Cardiology, Internal Medicine, Peripheral Vascular Disease.

CPT 92979

Ultrasound evaluation of heart blood vessel or graft with review by radiologist, each additional vessel

$72.73Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 9,585 services

Providers submitted

$288.00

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$72.73

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$58.05

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $288.00 for this code and Medicare allowed $72.73 — 4.0× 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 $58.05 (80%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 9,585
Beneficiaries: 7,973
Providers billing it: 413
Total allowed: $697,117

What Medicare pays for CPT 92979

Across 9,585 services billed by 413 providers to 7,973 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $72.73 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 92979

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Interventional Cardiology	6,014	5,016	$72.43	254
Cardiology	3,129	2,587	$73.03	138
Internal Medicine	340	282	$73.44	16
Peripheral Vascular Disease	40	33	$88.93	2
Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology	26	24	$69.58	1
Adult Congenital Heart Disease	24	20	$75.71	1
Interventional Radiology	12	11	$69.79	1

92979 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	1,093	$73.19	$57.00	43
Washington	763	$72.66	$57.09	25
Texas	612	$71.59	$57.12	28
New York	605	$84.09	$57.04	29
Florida	577	$75.67	$57.31	25
Massachusetts	570	$75.36	$57.01	17
Georgia	470	$73.02	$57.03	16
Ohio	406	$70.82	$57.14	16
Tennessee	326	$66.06	$55.88	14
Arizona	304	$69.77	$57.02	9
Pennsylvania	273	$71.14	$57.68	13
Missouri	243	$70.71	$57.42	13
Michigan	236	$73.05	$56.99	11
Illinois	214	$77.61	$57.14	10
North Carolina	200	$67.37	$57.10	10
Virginia	197	$74.11	$57.00	10
Colorado	183	$71.80	$56.97	10
Indiana	151	$67.14	$57.10	7
Nevada	149	$70.24	$56.97	8
Arkansas	146	$64.86	$57.14	6
New Jersey	133	$77.28	$57.17	7
New Mexico	130	$72.65	$57.02	4
Maryland	124	$75.50	$56.96	3
South Carolina	124	$67.66	$57.06	5
Oklahoma	102	$70.41	$56.94	5
Wisconsin	101	$66.09	$56.53	5
Louisiana	98	$67.57	$57.54	6
Nebraska	86	$65.69	$57.20	6
Kentucky	84	$71.37	$56.98	5
Alaska	81	$92.04	$57.34	4
West Virginia	79	$72.70	$57.04	4
North Dakota	77	$67.54	$56.99	2
New Hampshire	77	$70.42	$57.12	4
Iowa	75	$66.86	$56.99	5
South Dakota	67	$66.39	$57.08	4
Oregon	66	$70.86	$57.17	4
Mississippi	54	$68.65	$57.95	2
Minnesota	53	$67.74	$56.97	4
Alabama	48	$66.02	$57.25	2
Wyoming	46	$73.76	$57.01	2
Hawaii	44	$70.05	$56.88	2
Connecticut	34	$76.87	$56.96	2
Utah	31	$68.24	$57.46	2
Idaho	28	$65.55	$57.05	2
Rhode Island	13	$67.93	$58.10	1
Montana	12	$71.55	$57.15	1

Related codes

92928Insertion of stents$525.63
92960External shock to heart to regulate heart beat$103.99
92978Ultrasound evaluation of heart blood vessel or graft$91.55
92972Shockwave destruction of calcified plaque in coronary artery accessed$141.81
92941Removal of plaque and blood clot$623.51
92933Removal of plaque$610.77
92920Balloon dilation of single coronary artery or branch$406.19
92943Removal of plaque$618.11
92950Manual attempt to restore blood circulation and breathing$178.69

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.