CPT 76700
Ultrasound of the abdomen, complete
A complete ultrasound of the abdomen, covering the liver, gallbladder, pancreas, kidneys, spleen and major vessels. A limited study of one area is a different code (76705).
Billed to Medicare
$193
What providers submitted, on average, for this code in a hospital setting.
Medicare accepted
$38
What Medicare treated as payable. Not a commercial rate or a cash price.
The gap
5.1x
How many times the accepted amount the billed figure was.
National averages from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2024 data, retrieved 2026-09-14. Medicare fee-for-service, physician and practitioner claims only. The hospital's own charge for the same code is separate and is usually higher. Based on 265,493 services.
Of the 8 imaging codes on this site with CMS figures, this one has the narrowest gap between billed and accepted. The widest is CT scan of the head, without contrast at 6x.
Where this line goes wrong
Complete versus limited
A complete study requires all the listed organs to be examined and documented. If the report only mentions the gallbladder, the correct code was 76705, which is priced lower.
Ultrasound in the ER at the bedside
A quick scan by the ER physician (point-of-care ultrasound) is billed as a limited study with a different code and should not appear as a complete study.
Check it, then ask
- 1
Ask for the itemized bill and the imaging report, and check that each billed study has a report.
- 2
Check the two halves match: the facility line and the radiologist's line should carry the same code for the same date.
- 3
If the radiologist was out of network for an emergency visit or at an in-network facility, the No Surprises Act limits what you can be billed.
- 4
If you are self-pay, ask for the hospital's published cash price for the scan; it is usually a fraction of the list price.
The full walkthrough for this kind of bill: You got an ER bill.
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Codes that travel with this one
People also ask
Why was I billed for a complete abdominal ultrasound when they only looked at my gallbladder?
That is the question to put to the billing office in writing. The report is the evidence: if it documents one organ, ask for the code to be corrected to the limited study.
Sources
This page explains a billing code in general terms. It is not a coding, legal or medical opinion about your bill, and the code descriptions are mediloop's own plain-English summaries, not the official CPT descriptors, which are owned by the American Medical Association. Whether a charge was correct depends on the record of your visit and your payer's rules.