How much does Medicare pay for CPT 82270?

Medicare allowed an average of $4.27 per service and paid $4.27 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $18.71, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 82270?

Stool analysis for blood to screen for colon tumors. It was billed 89,131 times to 89,112 Medicare beneficiaries by 1,610 providers in 2024.

Does 82270 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $4.27 in an office setting and $4.29 in a facility. The office rate is generally higher because the practice supplies the room, staff and equipment out of that single payment; in a hospital those are billed separately by the facility.

Which specialty bills 82270 most?

Internal Medicine, with 28,587 services from 514 clinicians. Next are Obstetrics & Gynecology, Family Practice, Clinical Laboratory.

CPT 82270

Stool analysis for blood to screen for colon tumors

$4.27Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 89,131 services

Providers submitted

$18.71

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$4.27

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$4.27

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $18.71 for this code and Medicare allowed $4.27 — 4.4× 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 $4.27 (100%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $4.27
Hospital / facility: $4.29

The facility rate is higher for this code, which is unusual and generally means the service depends on equipment or staffing a hospital carries. 89,079 services were billed in an office setting and 52 in a facility.

Services: 89,131
Beneficiaries: 89,112
Providers billing it: 1,610
Total allowed: $380,589

What Medicare pays for CPT 82270

Across 89,131 services billed by 1,610 providers to 89,112 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $4.27 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 82270

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Internal Medicine	28,587	28,569	$4.28	514
Obstetrics & Gynecology	23,870	23,870	$4.28	280
Family Practice	16,124	16,123	$4.26	430
Clinical Laboratory	8,632	8,632	$4.29	83
Nurse Practitioner	3,196	3,196	$4.26	92
Urology	1,575	1,575	$4.29	8
Gastroenterology	1,562	1,562	$4.28	37
Physician Assistant	1,342	1,342	$4.25	35
Hematology-Oncology	805	805	$4.26	40
General Practice	652	652	$4.29	18
Cardiology	577	577	$4.29	11
Medical Oncology	427	427	$4.29	19
Endocrinology	334	334	$4.27	3
Infectious Disease	314	314	$4.29	5
Geriatric Medicine	221	221	$4.29	5

82270 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
New York	15,292	$4.28	$4.29	229
California	12,646	$4.28	$4.28	170
New Jersey	6,840	$4.28	$4.29	98
Florida	5,896	$4.29	$4.29	106
Texas	5,351	$4.24	$4.28	120
Arizona	4,262	$4.29	$4.29	30
Georgia	3,397	$4.25	$4.29	73
Massachusetts	2,752	$4.28	$4.29	62
Pennsylvania	2,631	$4.28	$4.29	59
Tennessee	2,198	$4.27	$4.29	53
Virginia	2,176	$4.28	$4.29	40
South Carolina	2,135	$4.27	$4.29	37
Alabama	1,937	$4.26	$4.29	41
Illinois	1,787	$4.27	$4.29	26
Michigan	1,695	$4.27	$4.28	42
Mississippi	1,675	$4.26	$4.29	25
Maryland	1,586	$4.28	$4.29	30
Connecticut	1,472	$4.25	$4.29	37
Ohio	1,453	$4.26	$4.29	36
Oklahoma	1,442	$4.25	$4.29	23
North Carolina	1,380	$4.27	$4.29	45
Rhode Island	947	$4.27	$4.29	20
Missouri	749	$4.27	$4.29	12
Arkansas	731	$4.26	$4.29	29
Louisiana	605	$4.29	$4.29	18
West Virginia	563	$4.27	$4.29	15
Oregon	550	$4.28	$4.29	8
Indiana	531	$4.25	$4.29	16
Kansas	519	$4.28	$4.29	12
Iowa	516	$4.27	$4.29	8
New Mexico	479	$4.27	$4.29	11
Kentucky	459	$4.28	$4.29	14
New Hampshire	399	$4.29	$4.29	5
Nebraska	375	$4.27	$4.29	7
District of Columbia	261	$4.29	$4.29	2
Colorado	165	$4.29	$4.29	6
Washington	162	$4.29	$4.29	6
Nevada	144	$4.20	$4.29	4
Delaware	139	$4.29	$4.29	5
South Dakota	139	$4.29	$4.29	5
U.S. Virgin Islands	137	$4.29	$4.29	2
Vermont	116	$4.29	$4.29	3
Utah	114	$4.21	$4.29	5
Puerto Rico	72	$4.27	$4.29	5
Idaho	69	$4.17	$4.29	2
Montana	64	$4.29	$4.29	1
Wisconsin	61	$4.29	$4.29	3
Maine	40	$4.29	$4.29	2
Hawaii	22	$4.09	$4.29	2

Related codes

82248Bilirubin level$4.88
82247Bilirubin level$4.85
82274Stool analysis for blood$15.55
82232Beta-2 microglobulin (protein) level$15.83
82272Stool analysis for blood$4.14
82239Bile acids level$16.70

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.