Medicare pays for a diagnostic heart catheterization about every 35 seconds
That pace holds across the whole year: about one every 35 seconds, or roughly 2,500 a day.
A diagnostic catheterization threads a catheter to the coronary arteries to image them for blockages. The fee-for-service record carries about 0.4 million of these studies in 2024; scaled for Medicare Advantage, an estimated 0.9 million across all of Medicare.
This counts the diagnostic study alone. Interventional stenting is a separate family and is not included. Volume this high tracks the workup of suspected coronary disease across an aging Medicare population; the count describes how often the study is billed, not why.
A volume record and a scale illustration, not a statement of need or benefit — it counts how often the study is billed, not whether any case was necessary.
A count of fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries with a diagnostic heart catheterization (with coronary angiography) in 2024, scaled to total Medicare enrollment and divided across the seconds in the year.
Not billed claim lines, not interventional stenting (a separate family), not an exact study count, and not all-payer.