70557 Mri brain w/o dye

What 70557 is

CMS fee schedule short descriptor: Mri brain w/o dye.

Full CPT long descriptions are licensed by the American Medical Association and are not published on this site; the short descriptor above is the one CMS prints in its own fee schedule file. See About CPT.

Medicare payment for 70557 (CY2026)

This code has no Physician Fee Schedule rate: Carrier-priced - the Medicare contractor sets the price. It may be paid under a different fee schedule (clinical laboratory, DMEPOS, anesthesia) or not paid at all - check the relevant CMS schedule.

Medically Unlikely Edit (MUE)

Medicare caps 70557 at 1 unit per date of service for practitioner claims (MAI 3 - date of service edit (clinical): units above the MUE may pay with documentation on appeal), rationale: Anatomic Consideration. Units above the cap are denied unless the edit's adjudication rules allow an appeal with documentation.

Billed with 70557? These codes are bundled into it

70557 is a Column 1 code in 10 active NCCI PTP edits. When one of these Column 2 codes is reported on the same date of service, it is denied as bundled - unless the edit's modifier indicator is 1 and documentation supports a distinct service with an NCCI-associated modifier.

70557 is bundled into these codes

70557 appears as a Column 2 code in 11 active edits. Reported with one of these Column 1 codes on the same date of service, 70557 is the code that denies.

Data: CMS CY2026 Physician Fee Schedule RVU file (October release, RVU26D) and Medicare NCCI PTP practitioner edits v32.3 (2026 Q4). Verify against the official files before billing or contracting decisions.