mediloop
Billing codes

CPT 93000

ECG with interpretation, 12 lead

A standard 12-lead electrocardiogram including the doctor's interpretation and report. It has two halves that can be billed separately: 93005 for performing the tracing (the hospital usually bills this) and 93010 for interpreting it (the physician bills this). 93000 is both together, used when one provider does everything.

Billed to Medicare

$63

What providers submitted, on average, for this code in a hospital setting.

Medicare accepted

$13

What Medicare treated as payable. Not a commercial rate or a cash price.

The gap

4.7x

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 19,697 services.

Among the 10 er procedures and injections codes on this site with CMS figures, this gap ranks 6 of 10 (median 4.7x). The widest is Simple wound repair, up to 2.5 cm at 9.9x.

Watch out

Where this line goes wrong

93000 next to 93005 or 93010 is a duplicate

If the hospital billed the tracing and the doctor billed the interpretation, nobody should also bill the combined code.

Repeats need a reason

Serial ECGs during a chest pain work-up are legitimate and each needs its own interpretation in the record.

What to do

Check it, then ask

  1. 1

    Check the hospital and physician bills together for 93000, 93005 and 93010 and confirm each ECG is billed as one tracing and one interpretation.

  2. 2

    Ask for the ECG reports if more than two were billed.

The full walkthrough for this kind of bill: You got an ER bill.

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Questions

People also ask

Why do I have two charges for one ECG?

One is the hospital's charge for running the test and one is the doctor's charge for reading it. That is normal. Three charges is not.

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.