How much does Medicare pay for CPT 93979?

Medicare allowed an average of $89.63 per service and paid $67.50 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $315.47, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 93979?

Ultrasound of aorta, vena cava, groin vessels or bypass grafts. It was billed 36,949 times to 33,756 Medicare beneficiaries by 856 providers in 2024.

Does 93979 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $100.57 in an office setting and $22.97 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 93979 most?

Vascular Surgery, with 15,564 services from 428 clinicians. Next are Cardiology, Diagnostic Radiology, Internal Medicine.

CPT 93979

Ultrasound of aorta, vena cava, groin vessels or bypass grafts

$89.63Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 36,949 services

Providers submitted

$315.47

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$89.63

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$67.50

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $315.47 for this code and Medicare allowed $89.63 — 3.5× 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 $67.50 (75%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $100.57
Hospital / facility: $22.97

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. 31,741 services were billed in an office setting and 5,208 in a facility.

Services: 36,949
Beneficiaries: 33,756
Providers billing it: 856
Total allowed: $3,311,739

What Medicare pays for CPT 93979

Across 36,949 services billed by 856 providers to 33,756 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $89.63 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 93979

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Vascular Surgery	15,564	13,497	$85.67	428
Cardiology	9,419	9,043	$98.33	146
Diagnostic Radiology	2,739	2,606	$66.11	83
Internal Medicine	1,877	1,818	$105.26	29
General Surgery	1,517	1,335	$87.40	34
Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)	1,509	1,372	$112.38	16
Interventional Cardiology	1,431	1,369	$80.61	45
Family Practice	1,322	1,307	$99.39	27
Interventional Radiology	504	439	$85.70	15
Emergency Medicine	270	270	$25.39	10
Anesthesiology	211	126	$108.50	2
Thoracic Surgery	98	93	$61.67	4
Gastroenterology	90	90	$132.56	1
Nurse Practitioner	75	73	$83.58	3
Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology	65	63	$95.54	2

93979 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	5,011	$97.81	$73.71	78
California	4,972	$105.37	$69.48	67
Texas	3,221	$97.27	$75.08	79
New York	3,089	$101.35	$67.05	81
New Jersey	2,453	$109.92	$73.42	37
Arizona	2,014	$95.12	$73.86	28
Mississippi	1,226	$83.00	$68.54	7
Maryland	1,085	$91.26	$65.62	24
South Carolina	1,078	$41.92	$31.58	29
Tennessee	1,053	$77.61	$62.81	21
Virginia	1,051	$48.15	$34.32	34
North Carolina	1,032	$89.99	$67.34	43
Pennsylvania	904	$79.21	$61.18	31
Illinois	724	$100.68	$72.14	19
Oklahoma	687	$62.12	$50.46	23
Georgia	682	$70.90	$56.68	26
Nevada	608	$94.09	$73.33	8
Colorado	511	$88.16	$62.86	14
Massachusetts	475	$87.71	$54.28	15
Michigan	463	$104.59	$80.57	13
Hawaii	448	$102.66	$73.80	4
Arkansas	447	$46.24	$37.14	12
Connecticut	388	$105.65	$69.50	14
Kentucky	312	$65.46	$50.69	11
Ohio	286	$36.65	$25.04	15
Missouri	237	$57.64	$43.77	12
Vermont	233	$21.94	$14.69	6
Indiana	227	$79.14	$63.54	11
Kansas	221	$75.70	$61.09	9
Rhode Island	200	$113.18	$79.77	4
Washington	150	$85.00	$60.66	9
West Virginia	140	$23.17	$14.37	3
New Hampshire	138	$62.49	$43.49	6
Maine	134	$44.84	$26.23	8
Alabama	128	$83.16	$72.78	8
Minnesota	125	$75.28	$53.95	8
Iowa	105	$30.56	$22.65	2
Oregon	100	$72.89	$56.07	7
Idaho	99	$29.51	$19.11	6
Louisiana	89	$96.90	$77.73	5
Delaware	79	$90.47	$67.08	4
Utah	68	$83.00	$68.67	1
Wisconsin	56	$38.36	$28.19	4
Nebraska	51	$38.21	$30.40	3
Alaska	50	$30.43	$16.90	2
North Dakota	44	$37.16	$27.37	3
South Dakota	35	$95.94	$76.72	1
New Mexico	20	$22.99	$13.77	1

Related codes

93971Ultrasound study of one arm or leg veins$51.34
93970Ultrasound study of arm or leg veins$96.22
93925Ultrasound of leg arteries or artery grafts$179.07
93922Ultrasound study of arm and leg arteries$54.80
93923Complete ultrasound study of arm and leg arteries$95.57
93978Complete ultrasound of aorta$144.08
93926Ultrasound of one leg arteries or artery grafts$73.51
93975Complete ultrasound of abdomen and pelvis artery and vein blood flow$173.24
93976Ultrasound of abdomen and pelvis artery and vein blood flow$86.57
93990Ultrasound of hemodialysis access$103.15
93924Ultrasound of leg arteries at rest and after exercise$138.34
93931Ultrasound of one arm arteries or artery grafts$69.61

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.