How much does Medicare pay for CPT 81279?

Medicare allowed an average of $180.52 per service and paid $180.52 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $279.10, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 81279?

Gene analysis (janus kinase 2) targeted sequence analysis. It was billed 56,048 times to 55,588 Medicare beneficiaries by 143 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 81279 most?

Clinical Laboratory, with 53,432 services from 99 clinicians. Next are Pathology, Hematology-Oncology, Internal Medicine.

CPT 81279

Gene analysis (janus kinase 2) targeted sequence analysis

$180.52Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 56,048 services

Providers submitted

$279.10

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$180.52

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$180.52

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $279.10 for this code and Medicare allowed $180.52 — 1.5× less. That gap is normal and means nothing on its own: Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of what is billed, so the submitted figure describes a hospital chargemaster, not a price anyone paid. Of the allowed amount Medicare paid $180.52 (100%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 56,048
Beneficiaries: 55,588
Providers billing it: 143
Total allowed: $10,117,785

What Medicare pays for CPT 81279

Across 56,048 services billed by 143 providers to 55,588 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $180.52 per service. The allowed amount is the figure that matters: it is what Medicare and the patient together owe, set by the fee schedule and adjusted for local practice costs. What a provider chose to submit has no bearing on it.

Who bills 81279

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Clinical Laboratory	53,432	52,986	$180.48	99
Pathology	1,819	1,816	$181.29	9
Hematology-Oncology	541	534	$180.83	23
Internal Medicine	114	113	$179.99	5
Medical Oncology	90	88	$181.50	5
Hospitalist	37	36	$181.50	1
Hematology	15	15	$181.50	1

81279 reimbursement by state

Two different numbers. Allowed is what Medicare actually allowed in that state, which includes the local practice-cost adjustment. Standardized strips that geographic adjustment out of the payment, so it is the column to use when comparing states — a difference there reflects how the code was billed, not what it costs to run a practice locally.

State	Services	Allowed	Standardized pmt	Providers
Florida	28,732	$181.46	$181.50	34
Texas	10,680	$176.73	$181.47	28
New Jersey	8,861	$181.43	$181.50	11
Pennsylvania	2,804	$181.40	$181.50	6
California	1,091	$180.64	$181.50	1
Colorado	995	$181.50	$181.50	3
New York	715	$180.75	$181.50	35
Arizona	462	$181.50	$181.50	2
Connecticut	413	$180.85	$181.50	2
Louisiana	346	$181.50	$181.50	4
Massachusetts	173	$181.50	$181.50	2
Utah	166	$181.50	$181.50	2
Maryland	148	$179.94	$180.31	3
Oklahoma	143	$181.50	$181.50	2
Illinois	104	$181.50	$181.50	2
Georgia	82	$181.50	$181.50	1
Washington	43	$175.79	$181.50	2
Virginia	35	$181.50	$181.50	1
Missouri	29	$181.50	$181.50	1
New Mexico	26	$181.50	$181.50	1

Related codes

81249Gene analysis (glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase) full sequence analys$587.96
81238Gene analysis (coagulation factor ix) full sequence analysis$586.91
81223Gene analysis (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regular) full$472.59
81209Gene analysis (bloom syndrome$38.52
81242Gene analysis (fanconi anemia$35.89
81256Gene analysis (hemochromatosis) common variants$64.01
81250Gene analysis (glucose-6-phosphatase$57.32
81291Gene analysis (5$64.03
81206Translocation analysis (bcr/abl1) major breakpoint$160.03
81298Gene analysis (muts homolog 6 [e coli]) full sequence analysis$628.63
81241Gene analysis (coagulation factor v) leiden variant$71.89
81243Gene analysis (fragile x syndrome$55.88

Billing this code is not the same as earning it

An allowed amount is revenue to a practice, not income to a clinician. It funds staff, premises, equipment and supplies before anyone is paid. What clinicians actually earn is published separately by the Department of Labor, and what industry pays them is published separately again by CMS — this site carries both.

What doctors are paid →·Look up a clinician →·All procedure codes →

Where this comes from. CMS Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners, by Provider and Service, 2024. It covers fee-for-service Original Medicare Part B only — not Medicare Advantage, not Medicaid, and not commercial insurance, which typically pays more for the same code.

How it is averaged. CMS publishes one average per provider per code. Every figure here is re-weighted by the number of services, so a clinician who billed the code 4,000 times counts 4,000 times more than one who billed it twice. CMS also suppresses any provider-code pair with fewer than 11 beneficiaries, so low-volume practice is missing from these totals by design.