How much does Medicare pay for CPT 93018?

Medicare allowed an average of $13.43 per service and paid $10.16 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $78.46, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 93018?

Exercise or drug-induced heart stress test with electrocardiogram (ecg) with review by physician. It was billed 845,958 times to 840,589 Medicare beneficiaries by 11,719 providers in 2024.

Does 93018 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $13.58 in an office setting and $13.39 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 93018 most?

Cardiology, with 631,166 services from 8,325 clinicians. Next are Interventional Cardiology, Internal Medicine, Nurse Practitioner.

CPT 93018

Exercise or drug-induced heart stress test with electrocardiogram (ecg) with review by physician

$13.43Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 845,958 services

Providers submitted

$78.46

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$13.43

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$10.16

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $78.46 for this code and Medicare allowed $13.43 — 5.8× 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 $10.16 (76%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $13.58
Hospital / facility: $13.39

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. 171,405 services were billed in an office setting and 674,553 in a facility.

Services: 845,958
Beneficiaries: 840,589
Providers billing it: 11,719
Total allowed: $11,361,216

What Medicare pays for CPT 93018

Across 845,958 services billed by 11,719 providers to 840,589 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $13.43 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 93018

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Cardiology	631,166	627,184	$13.49	8,325
Interventional Cardiology	111,213	110,529	$13.31	1,773
Internal Medicine	48,447	48,065	$13.46	744
Nurse Practitioner	12,065	12,006	$11.39	191
Nuclear Medicine	8,824	8,791	$13.83	67
Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology	7,346	7,317	$13.43	121
Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology	6,552	6,500	$13.50	161
Diagnostic Radiology	6,323	6,281	$13.79	70
Physician Assistant	4,523	4,485	$11.50	62
Family Practice	3,012	2,978	$13.35	70
Hospitalist	2,271	2,254	$13.69	55
Cardiac Surgery	1,198	1,195	$13.49	18
Interventional Radiology	487	485	$12.99	7
Pediatric Medicine	397	396	$13.22	5
Sleep Medicine	395	393	$13.70	3

93018 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	48,184	$14.17	$10.23	740
Illinois	46,318	$13.69	$10.15	534
Texas	44,819	$13.31	$10.23	711
Ohio	42,463	$13.13	$10.05	569
Florida	42,000	$13.45	$10.18	731
Pennsylvania	40,257	$13.34	$10.03	629
New York	36,806	$14.39	$10.12	536
New Jersey	33,500	$14.63	$10.14	465
Indiana	30,718	$12.96	$10.07	378
Massachusetts	29,488	$13.95	$9.88	353
Michigan	29,020	$13.45	$10.02	425
Tennessee	29,013	$12.97	$10.08	337
Georgia	28,660	$13.27	$10.12	430
Virginia	24,952	$13.43	$10.07	317
Missouri	24,011	$13.07	$10.12	272
North Carolina	23,408	$13.10	$10.13	391
Oklahoma	19,142	$13.01	$10.22	174
South Carolina	18,868	$13.15	$10.25	210
Kentucky	18,548	$13.13	$10.04	224
Washington	18,389	$13.54	$9.81	245
Wisconsin	16,923	$12.87	$9.80	261
Kansas	13,915	$13.04	$10.29	135
Minnesota	13,664	$13.33	$9.87	232
Arkansas	13,035	$12.85	$10.11	128
Arizona	11,896	$13.30	$10.30	151
Colorado	11,657	$13.52	$10.03	173
Alabama	11,451	$12.90	$10.21	143
Iowa	11,341	$12.89	$10.18	123
Louisiana	11,185	$13.15	$10.33	195
Mississippi	9,381	$12.97	$10.17	115
Connecticut	8,031	$14.17	$10.05	154
New Hampshire	7,831	$13.30	$9.92	91
Maryland	7,367	$13.70	$10.09	152
South Dakota	6,983	$12.62	$9.66	61
Utah	6,846	$13.11	$10.38	74
Nebraska	6,288	$12.86	$10.33	80
Oregon	5,877	$13.55	$9.82	117
West Virginia	5,631	$13.26	$10.01	81
Nevada	5,445	$13.20	$10.29	98
Idaho	4,842	$12.86	$9.98	57
New Mexico	4,029	$13.28	$9.96	53
Maine	3,832	$13.49	$10.01	83
North Dakota	3,520	$13.24	$10.19	38
Montana	3,347	$13.02	$9.70	45
Delaware	3,315	$13.40	$10.08	38
Rhode Island	2,404	$13.64	$10.05	47
Vermont	2,066	$13.19	$9.79	19
Hawaii	2,040	$13.38	$9.96	44
Alaska	1,184	$17.27	$9.96	19
Wyoming	758	$12.93	$9.73	16
Guam	605	$12.85	$9.71	3
District of Columbia	429	$14.24	$9.99	10
Puerto Rico	256	$13.37	$9.80	11
ZZ	20	$13.35	$9.13	1

Related codes

93010Routine electrocardiogram (ecg)$7.95
93000Routine electrocardiogram (ecg)$14.24
93015Exercise or drug-induced heart stress test$66.28
93016Exercise or drug-induced heart stress test$20.06
93005Routine electrocardiogram (ecg)$6.15
93042Electrocardiogram (ecg) 1 to 3 leads$6.79
93040Electrocardiogram (ecg) 1 to 3 leads$13.18
93017Exercise or drug-induced heart stress test$31.71
93041Electrocardiogram (ecg) 1 to 3 leads$6.52
93050Analysis of central arterial pressure$14.83

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.