How much does Medicare pay for CPT 82542?

Medicare allowed an average of $23.53 per service and paid $23.53 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $114.94, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 82542?

Chemical analysis using chromatography technique. It was billed 200,533 times to 115,071 Medicare beneficiaries by 123 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 82542 most?

Clinical Laboratory, with 200,439 services from 120 clinicians. Next are Pathology, Cardiology, Neurology.

CPT 82542

Chemical analysis using chromatography technique

$23.53Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 200,533 services

Providers submitted

$114.94

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$23.53

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$23.53

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $114.94 for this code and Medicare allowed $23.53 — 4.9× 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 $23.53 (100%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 200,533
Beneficiaries: 115,071
Providers billing it: 123
Total allowed: $4,718,541

What Medicare pays for CPT 82542

Across 200,533 services billed by 123 providers to 115,071 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $23.53 per service. That is 1.7 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 82542

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Clinical Laboratory	200,439	114,986	$23.53	120
Pathology	52	43	$23.61	1
Cardiology	25	25	$23.61	1
Neurology	17	17	$23.61	1

82542 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
Ohio	48,766	$23.57	$23.61	6
Florida	18,911	$23.60	$23.61	8
California	16,223	$23.40	$23.61	13
Massachusetts	16,202	$23.54	$23.61	3
Tennessee	15,633	$23.55	$23.61	4
North Carolina	14,556	$23.39	$23.61	4
Texas	11,504	$23.61	$23.61	7
Arizona	11,457	$23.58	$23.61	3
New Jersey	10,482	$23.59	$23.61	8
Georgia	6,446	$23.61	$23.61	2
Illinois	4,213	$23.61	$23.61	5
Minnesota	3,982	$23.54	$23.61	3
Kansas	3,644	$23.61	$23.61	3
Kentucky	3,462	$23.61	$23.61	2
Maryland	2,581	$23.61	$23.61	2
Washington	1,895	$23.60	$23.61	4
Pennsylvania	1,805	$23.60	$23.61	6
New York	1,627	$23.58	$23.61	5
Colorado	1,232	$23.61	$23.61	2
Oklahoma	1,051	$23.61	$23.61	4
Oregon	1,004	$20.35	$23.61	3
Nevada	975	$23.61	$23.61	1
Alabama	708	$23.60	$23.61	3
Michigan	398	$23.61	$23.61	2
Louisiana	317	$23.61	$23.61	1
Wisconsin	283	$23.47	$23.61	3
Hawaii	274	$23.61	$23.61	2
Utah	236	$23.52	$23.61	3
Virginia	219	$23.61	$23.61	3
New Mexico	174	$23.46	$23.61	1
Indiana	87	$23.35	$23.61	1
New Hampshire	83	$23.61	$23.61	2
Puerto Rico	62	$23.61	$23.61	3
North Dakota	41	$23.61	$23.61	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
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
82595Cryoglobulin (protein) measurement$6.34

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.