How much does Medicare pay for CPT 82540?

Medicare allowed an average of $4.55 per service and paid $4.55 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $67.19, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 82540?

Creatine measurement. It was billed 6,816 times to 5,845 Medicare beneficiaries by 100 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 82540 most?

Clinical Laboratory, with 4,503 services from 51 clinicians. Next are Urology, Internal Medicine, Family Practice.

CPT 82540

Creatine measurement

$4.55Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 6,816 services

Providers submitted

$67.19

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$4.55

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$4.55

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $67.19 for this code and Medicare allowed $4.55 — 14.8× 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 $4.55 (100%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 6,816
Beneficiaries: 5,845
Providers billing it: 100
Total allowed: $31,013

What Medicare pays for CPT 82540

Across 6,816 services billed by 100 providers to 5,845 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $4.55 per service. That is 1.2 services per beneficiary, so this is a code patients typically receive more than once. 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 82540

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Clinical Laboratory	4,503	3,959	$4.55	51
Urology	744	586	$4.60	2
Internal Medicine	524	479	$4.55	16
Family Practice	323	265	$4.55	12
Nurse Practitioner	309	212	$4.55	7
Neurology	91	85	$4.55	1
General Practice	85	82	$4.55	2
Nephrology	66	36	$4.55	2
Hematology	50	35	$4.55	1
Endocrinology	39	28	$4.55	1
Physician Assistant	32	30	$4.55	2
Rheumatology	26	24	$4.55	1
Otolaryngology	13	13	$4.55	1
Pediatric Medicine	11	11	$4.55	1

82540 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
California	2,157	$4.55	$4.55	46
New York	1,535	$4.57	$4.56	6
North Carolina	682	$4.55	$4.55	1
Florida	458	$4.55	$4.55	5
New Jersey	451	$4.55	$4.55	6
Arizona	234	$4.55	$4.55	2
Texas	195	$4.55	$4.55	5
Illinois	178	$4.55	$4.55	2
Massachusetts	143	$4.55	$4.55	2
Ohio	101	$4.55	$4.55	2
Virginia	94	$4.55	$4.55	2
Washington	82	$4.55	$4.55	2
Alabama	81	$4.55	$4.55	3
Colorado	60	$4.55	$4.55	2
Nevada	55	$4.55	$4.55	1
Georgia	54	$4.55	$4.55	1
Pennsylvania	51	$4.55	$4.55	3
Maryland	50	$4.55	$4.55	2
Connecticut	50	$4.55	$4.55	1
Kansas	44	$4.55	$4.55	2
Tennessee	23	$4.55	$4.55	1
Indiana	16	$4.55	$4.55	1
Delaware	11	$4.55	$4.55	1
Michigan	11	$4.55	$4.55	1

Related codes

82570Creatinine level to test for kidney function or muscle injury$5.06
82550Creatine kinase (cardiac enzyme) level$6.37
82565Blood creatinine level$4.89
82533Cortisol (hormone) measurement$15.94
82542Chemical analysis$23.53
82523Collagen cross links test$18.30
82525Copper level$12.12
82507Citrate level$27.22
82530Cortisol (hormone) measurement$16.35
82553Creatine kinase (cardiac enzyme) level$11.29
82575Creatinine clearance measurement to test for kidney function$9.19
82552Creatine kinase (cardiac enzyme) level$13.09

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.