CPT 93017 Billing: Stress Test Tracing Only

Mukesh MakwanaFounder & CEO · Hands-on medical billing & RCM across 11 specialties · Reviewed September 28, 2026

CPT 93017 is the technical component of a cardiovascular stress test: the tracing, the equipment, the staff and the space, without supervision or interpretation. Who may bill it is decided by one question, and it is not a clinical one: who owns the equipment.

What CPT 93017 covers

93017 is the cardiovascular stress test, tracing only, without interpretation and report. It covers acquiring the continuous ECG through rest, stress and recovery, along with the equipment and personnel that make that possible.

It pairs with 93016 for supervision and 93018 for the interpretation, both reported by the physician side. Where a single practice provides everything on its own equipment, the correct report is the global 93015.

Reimbursement context

93017 carries the technical value of the stress test, which is the larger share of the global amount in most localities because it absorbs equipment and staffing cost.

2026 Medicare RVUs for CPT 93017

CPT 93017: 2026 Medicare RVUs (national, before GPCI)
Line	Work	PE, non-facility	PE, facility	Malpractice	Total, non-facility	Total, facility
Global (no modifier)	0.00	1.15	NA	0.02	1.17	NA

Source: CMS CY 2026 PFS Relative Value File, RVU26D (October release, published 08/26/2026). RVUs are national and unadjusted; commercial payers set their own rates.

In the 2026 CMS relative value file, CPT 93017 carries 0.00 work RVUs and 1.17 total RVUs. The facility column is NA: CMS values this code only for a non-facility setting such as an office. Its PC/TC indicator is 3: 93017 is itself a technical-component-only code, so modifier TC is never added to it. Its global indicator is XXX: the surgical global period concept does not apply.

To turn RVUs into payment, each component is multiplied by your locality's geographic practice cost index, the three are added, and the sum is multiplied by the 2026 conversion factor: $33.4009, or $33.5675 for qualifying APM participants (CMS-1832-F; CMS fact sheet). The CMS Physician Fee Schedule Look-Up Tool runs that calculation for your locality.

Documentation requirements

The retained tracing across rest, stress and recovery phases.
Protocol, stage timings and workload or pharmacological agent and dose.
Heart rate and blood pressure recordings at each stage.
Reason for termination.
Evidence of equipment ownership or lease by the billing entity.
The clinical indication, coded specifically.

Medicare contractor billing articles. Each Medicare Administrative Contractor publishes its own billing and coding articles for this service, and the covered diagnoses differ by jurisdiction. Active examples in the CMS Medicare Coverage Database, checked September 28, 2026: A57183 (Cardiovascular Stress Testing, Including Exercise and/or Pharmacological Stress and Stress Echocardiography, Noridian), A56423 (Cardiology Non-emergent Outpatient Stress Testing, Novitas) and A56952 (Cardiology Non-emergent Outpatient Stress Testing, First Coast). Use the article from the contractor that processes your claims.

Common denials and the exact fix

Modifier TC appended to 93017

93017 is already the technical-only code. Adding TC is redundant and some payers reject the line.

Fix: submit 93017 with no component modifier.

Billed by a practice that does not own the equipment

When the facility bills the technical component, a second 93017 from the practice denies as a duplicate for the date of service.

Fix: map each testing location to the entity that owns the equipment, and bill the technical component from there only.

Billed alongside the global code 93015

The tracing is already inside 93015, so the component line duplicates it.

Fix: global or components, never both.

Billed with stress echocardiography 93351

93351 includes the continuous ECG monitoring, so a separate tracing code denies.

Fix: report 93351 alone. With 93350 the stress components remain separately reportable, and with nuclear perfusion imaging such as 78452 they also remain reportable.

CO-50: diagnosis does not support the study

The technical component is held to the same medical-necessity standard as the global code.

Fix: carry the ordering physician's cardiac indication onto the technical claim.

Modifier rules

TC: not used. 93017 is the technical code by definition.
26: never appropriate; the professional work is 93016 and 93018.
76: repeat study on the same day with a documented clinical trigger.
59 / XE / XP / XS / XU: rarely applicable and not a bundling workaround.

NCCI bundling edits

93017 with 93015: the tracing is a component of the global code.
93017 with 93351: included in stress echocardiography with ECG monitoring.
93017 with 93350: separately reportable.
93017 with 78452: separately reportable alongside nuclear perfusion imaging.
93017 with 93000 or 93005: the resting tracing acquired for the stress test is not separately reportable as a routine ECG.

The stress test family splits through four separate codes, not through 26 and TC modifiers. Choosing the wrong member of the family is the single biggest source of stress test denials.

Frequently asked questions

Who bills CPT 93017?

The entity that owns or leases the stress testing equipment and supplies the staff and space, most often a hospital or an independent diagnostic testing facility. A practice that performs the study on its own equipment and also supervises and interprets it reports the global 93015 instead.

Do I append modifier TC to CPT 93017?

No. 93017 is already the tracing-only code, so TC is redundant and can cause a rejection. The stress test family splits through separate codes rather than through 26 and TC modifiers.

Is 93017 separately reportable with a nuclear stress study?

Yes. Myocardial perfusion imaging such as 78452 pays for the imaging, while the stress test itself is reported separately, so the appropriate stress test code including 93017 is reportable when that entity performed the tracing. Stress echocardiography 93351 is the exception, because it already includes the continuous ECG monitoring.

Sources

American Medical Association, CPT 2026 Professional Edition.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, CY 2026 PFS Relative Value File RVU26D (October release): RVUs, PC/TC indicator and global period for CPT 93017.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, CY 2026 Physician Fee Schedule final rule, CMS-1832-F: conversion factors.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, National Correct Coding Initiative Policy Manual for Medicare Services and quarterly procedure-to-procedure edit tables.
Medicare Coverage Database billing and coding articles A57183, A56423, A56952.

CPT® is a registered trademark of the American Medical Association. Payer policy and NCCI edits change quarterly, so check your own contractor before submission. How we verify this guidance.

Related codes

CPT 93015. Cardiovascular stress test, global.
CPT 93005. ECG tracing only.
CPT 93016. Stress test supervision only.

More cardiology code guides

CPT 78452. Myocardial perfusion SPECT, multiple studies.
CPT 93454. Coronary angiography, no heart catheterization.
CPT 93459. Left heart cath with coronary and bypass graft angiography.
CPT 93461. Right and left heart cath with coronary and graft angiography.

CPT 93017: Cardiovascular Stress Test, Tracing Only