# Heart catheterization (left heart): what Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts pays, by state

A thin tube threaded to the heart to check for blockages and measure pressures.

- Insurer: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
- Billing code: 93452 (Heart tests)
- Price shown: negotiated in-network price, surgery center / hospital outpatient, facility fee
- Prices as of: unknown
- All of the insurer's plans pooled; the map also shows single networks

| State | Providers | Named in files | Lowest | 25th pct | Median | 75th pct | Highest | Medicare pays | Median vs Medicare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts | 93 | 102 | $3,940.19 | $4,798.29 | $5,357.50 | $6,299.17 | $10,136.51 | $961.96 | 5.6x Medicare |

**“x Medicare”** compares each price with what original Medicare pays a doctor for the same service in the same state under its physician fee schedule (RVU26D, in force from 2026-10-01) — the price for a doctor's own office. Insurers write their contracts as a share of Medicare, so 1.3x means the insurer pays 30% more than Medicare would; Medicare Advantage plans generally pay close to 1.0x. The prices on this map include a **facility fee**, which Medicare pays separately and which is not in its physician price, so the ratio here runs high and is a rough guide only.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts’s files name **102 providers** for this procedure; **93** are counted here: the clinicians whose specialty performs it and the practices, clinics and hospitals. Insurers attach their whole fee schedule to every contracted provider, so the rest are clinicians listed at a price for something they never do; counting them would inflate the provider count and pull the typical price towards the fee schedule’s floor.

Prices are what the insurer has agreed to pay, not what you will be billed. This is a statewide summary: prices vary far more between towns and between practices than these medians suggest, and "providers" counts everyone with a contracted price, not only those who perform the procedure.

Map: https://medicalpricetransparency.netlify.app/insurers/bcbsma/statemap_93452_US.html  
About this insurer's data, and its other procedures: [index.md](index.md)