# CPT 71271

> Medicare paid $150.74 for CPT 71271 in the office (non-facility) setting and $150.74 in a facility under the Q3 2021 Physician Fee Schedule, effective July 2021. These are the national allowed amounts before the ~2% sequestration cut and before locality (GPCI) adjustment.

## What it is

A chest CT deliberately run at a reduced radiation dose, with no contrast, for the specific purpose of screening people at high risk for lung cancer before they have any symptoms. The lower dose is possible because the scan only has to find nodules against air-filled lung, not resolve fine soft-tissue detail. This is a screening test on healthy people, which is what sets it apart from the diagnostic chest CT ordered to investigate a symptom or a known finding.

## Selected release

- Release: Q3 2021 (2021 C)
- Effective: July 1 – September 30, 2021
- Status indicator: A
- Office (non-facility) national allowed amount: $150.74
- Facility national allowed amount: $150.74
- Sequestration: not applied

## RVUs and formula

- Work RVU: 1.08
- Office (non-facility) practice expense RVU: 3.18
- Facility practice expense RVU: 3.18
- Malpractice RVU: 0.06
- Conversion factor: 34.8931
- Formula: `(work_rvu × work_gpci + pe_rvu × pe_gpci + mp_rvu × mp_gpci) × conversion_factor`

## Source and citation

- Source: Physician relative value file (Q3 2021)
- CMS file: https://www.cms.gov/files/zip/rvu21c-updated-6302021.zip
- Parsed file: PPRRVU21_JUL.csv, row 12,310
- Canonical page: https://localishealth.com/cpt/71271/2021/A
- Release-specific citation URL: https://localishealth.com/cpt/71271/2021/C
- Last significant update: 2026-08-04T03:10:45+00:00