CPT 73221

What could change this amount? Copy link

Review the applicable inputs and payment rules. Each link opens the supporting detail on this page.

Service location and setting · Participation and payment shares

How this amount is computed Copy link

CPT 73221 has a work RVU of 1.32, a non-facility practice expense RVU of 4.73, a facility practice expense RVU of 4.73 and a malpractice RVU of 0.09—for total non-facility RVUs of 6.14 and total facility RVUs of 6.14 in the Q4 2026 release.

amount = (work RVU × work GPCI + PE RVU × PE GPCI + MP RVU × MP GPCI) × conversion factor. National amounts use GPCI = 1.000. To price an RVU figure of your own, use the RVU-to-dollars converter.

Every rate combines three parts: work (the clinician’s time, skill and effort), practice expense (office overhead—higher when the service is done in a doctor’s own office), and malpractice (the share of liability-insurance cost). A blank means CMS publishes no national number for that part. Read it as unknown, and never as zero.

Payment review for 73221 Copy link

Four published payment rules can change what 73221 allows on a claim: the professional/technical split, the diagnostic-imaging reduction, 100% payment on each side and documentation-restricted assistant-at-surgery payment. Each is a legitimate reason for a paid amount to differ from the fee-schedule amount on this page.

Sources: CMS Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Relative Value Files; CMS Medicare Claims Processing Manual (Pub. 100-04); CMS Transmittal R694OTN: MPPR on the Technical Component of Certain Diagnostic Imaging Procedures; 42 USC 1395w-4(i)(2) (SSA §1848(i)(2))—Assistants-at-surgery.

Global period: what 73221's fee already covers Copy link

The global surgery concept does not apply to this code.

Billing 73221 whole or split (-26 and -TC) Copy link

73221 can be billed as one whole service, or split between the physician's interpretation and report (modifier 26) and the equipment, supplies and clinical staff (modifier TC). Which applies depends on who owns the equipment and who reads the study.

The two components add up to the whole-service amount in the office setting, so nothing is lost by splitting the bill—only the party billing each half changes.

A dash means CMS publishes no amount for that line in this release. Read it as unknown, never as zero. National amounts at GPCI 1.000, before sequestration and before any locality adjustment.

Billing policy Copy link

What 73221's billing-policy indicators mean. These show for every code, priced or not: a restriction like "bilateral not allowed" still matters on a carrier-priced code. See modifier amounts below for the dollar figures these support.

Modifier amounts: -26/TC, -50, -80/81/82, -AS, -62, -66 Copy link

National non-facility amounts for the modifiers this code's indicators support. Single-line modifiers only. -51 (multiple-procedure reduction) depends on the other codes on the same claim, so it's a claim-level number rather than a per-code one. Use the calculator for a locality-adjusted, sequestration-aware amount.

These apply standard MPFS percentages—assistant surgeon 16%, co-surgeon 62.5%, bilateral 150%—to the national non-facility amount above, and require both the RVU inputs and the applicable payment rule as evidence. They are derived here rather than read from a CMS column: check them against the current Medicare Claims Processing Manual before relying on them for payment. A row marked If documented carries the ordinary percentage, but this code's CMS indicator pays it only when supporting documentation of medical necessity is submitted—an unpaid claim without that documentation is not an underpayment.

Can you bill it with another code? Copy link

Enter a second CPT or HCPCS code billed on the same date of service. We'll check the current NCCI procedure-to-procedure edit between it and 73221.

See every current NCCI pair for 73221 →

Based on CMS's National Correct Coding Initiative (NCCI). A few examples appear here; use the complete edit page to check a specific pair.

Modifier 59 and the X modifiers are not a universal bypass—CMS expects the most specific applicable modifier, and which one that is depends on the pair and the documented circumstances.

Check a paired code or view all 13 NCCI pairs →

Allowed amount, program payment, and patient share Copy link

These figures use the same national baseline, with different participation and payment assumptions.

National Q4 2026 figures at GPCI 1.000. Adjust for your locality and sequestration, or expand the explanations below for each figure in full.

Common payment questions Copy link

Rate history by release Copy link

National non-facility amount for 73221 across quarterly releases. -1.5% decrease since Q1 2013 · high $257.21 in Q2 2014

Contracted rate: % of Medicare Copy link

Commercial payer contracts usually price off the Medicare amount above ("BCBS pays 115% of Medicare"). Enter your contract's percentage below to see what 73221 pays at that rate—$205.08 is 100%.

We want to build this: store your multipliers once, and every code page shows your rate instead of Medicare's. Tell us if you'd use it →

See how to find your contract's actual percentage.

How often 73221 is billed Copy link

Across Original Medicare in CY2024, 73221 ranked #297 of the 7,879 CPT codes billed to Medicare that year, by patients served or total allowed dollars.

2024 Medicare fee-for-service national totals. They exclude Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and commercial volume, so real-world use runs higher. This is a calendar-year snapshot from the CMS Physician & Other Practitioners dataset, on a different cycle from the Q4 2026 fee schedule above.

Related codes in this family Copy link

Other current codes near 73221 in our radiology and imaging section.

This is Localis's own editorial grouping for payment research, not the AMA's code-family taxonomy.