# CPT 73221

> Medicare paid $235.98 for CPT 73221 in the office (non-facility) setting and $235.98 in a facility under the Q1 2015 Physician Fee Schedule, effective January 2015. These are the national allowed amounts before the ~2% sequestration cut and before locality (GPCI) adjustment. This is a 8.3% decrease from the previous quarter.

## What it is

An MRI of one joint in the arm - most often the shoulder, but also the elbow or wrist - performed with no injected contrast dye. Unlike an X-ray, it shows the soft tissues: tendons, ligaments, cartilage, and the fluid inside the joint. This plain version is the standard first choice; matching codes cover the same joint scanned with dye, or scanned both ways.

## Selected release

- Release: Q1 2015 (2015 A)
- Effective: January 1 – March 31, 2015
- Status indicator: A
- Office (non-facility) national allowed amount: $235.98
- Facility national allowed amount: $235.98
- Sequestration: not applied

## RVUs and formula

- Work RVU: 1.35
- Office (non-facility) practice expense RVU: 5.17
- Facility practice expense RVU: 5.17
- Malpractice RVU: 0.08
- Conversion factor: 35.7547
- Formula: `(work_rvu × work_gpci + pe_rvu × pe_gpci + mp_rvu × mp_gpci) × conversion_factor`

## Source and citation

- Source: Physician relative value file (Q1 2015)
- CMS file: https://www.cms.gov/medicare/medicare-fee-for-service-payment/physicianfeesched/downloads/rvu15a.zip
- Parsed file: PPRRVU15_V1223c.csv, row 11,438
- Canonical page: https://localishealth.com/cpt/73221/2015/A
- Release-specific citation URL: https://localishealth.com/cpt/73221/2015/A
- Last significant update: 2026-08-04T03:05:39+00:00