# CPT 73721

> Medicare paid $213.83 for CPT 73721 in the office (non-facility) setting and $213.83 in a facility under the Q2 2023 Physician Fee Schedule, effective April 2023. These are the national allowed amounts before the ~2% sequestration cut and before locality (GPCI) adjustment. This price has been unchanged since Q1 2023, when it decreased 2.4%.

## What it is

An MRI of a joint in the lower limb - most often the knee, but also the hip, ankle, or a joint in the foot - done without contrast dye. MRI uses a magnetic field rather than X-rays, which is why it is the study of choice for soft tissue: cartilage, ligaments, tendons, and the meniscus show up in a way plain films and CT cannot match. This is the plain version; the same joint scanned with contrast, or before and after contrast, falls under different codes.

## Selected release

- Release: Q2 2023 (2023 B)
- Effective: April 1 – June 30, 2023
- Status indicator: A
- Office (non-facility) national allowed amount: $213.83
- Facility national allowed amount: $213.83
- Sequestration: not applied

## RVUs and formula

- Work RVU: 1.35
- Office (non-facility) practice expense RVU: 4.87
- Facility practice expense RVU: 4.87
- Malpractice RVU: 0.09
- Conversion factor: 33.8872
- Formula: `(work_rvu × work_gpci + pe_rvu × pe_gpci + mp_rvu × mp_gpci) × conversion_factor`

## Source and citation

- Source: Physician relative value file (Q2 2023)
- CMS file: https://www.cms.gov/files/zip/rvu23b-updated-02/27/2023.zip
- Parsed file: PPRRVU23_APR.csv, row 13,256
- Canonical page: https://localishealth.com/cpt/73721/2023/A
- Release-specific citation URL: https://localishealth.com/cpt/73721/2023/B
- Last significant update: 2026-08-04T03:12:43+00:00