How much does Medicare pay for CPT 82977?

Medicare allowed an average of $7.03 per service and paid $7.03 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $29.09, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 82977?

Glutamyltransferase (liver enzyme) level. It was billed 545,152 times to 311,149 Medicare beneficiaries by 989 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 82977 most?

Clinical Laboratory, with 335,788 services from 348 clinicians. Next are Internal Medicine, Nurse Practitioner, Family Practice.

CPT 82977

Glutamyltransferase (liver enzyme) level

$7.03Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 545,152 services

Providers submitted

$29.09

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$7.03

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$7.03

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $29.09 for this code and Medicare allowed $7.03 — 4.1× 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 $7.03 (100%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 545,152
Beneficiaries: 311,149
Providers billing it: 989
Total allowed: $3,832,419

What Medicare pays for CPT 82977

Across 545,152 services billed by 989 providers to 311,149 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $7.03 per service. That is 1.8 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 82977

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Clinical Laboratory	335,788	232,732	$7.02	348
Internal Medicine	64,757	28,121	$7.04	207
Nurse Practitioner	47,659	6,663	$7.05	78
Family Practice	26,992	16,651	$6.98	130
Nephrology	22,227	825	$7.06	5
Endocrinology	9,382	4,879	$7.05	24
Rheumatology	7,701	3,609	$7.04	26
Hematology-Oncology	6,323	2,907	$6.95	36
Cardiology	5,654	3,478	$7.04	13
Medical Oncology	3,635	1,327	$6.98	10
Physician Assistant	3,190	1,885	$6.95	25
Pathology	2,222	1,887	$7.04	18
Pain Management	2,002	1,676	$6.95	13
Interventional Cardiology	1,056	482	$7.06	1
Gastroenterology	1,034	589	$7.05	14

82977 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 Jersey	90,126	$6.99	$7.00	55
Arizona	88,598	$7.02	$7.03	13
California	76,946	$7.06	$7.06	111
New York	50,117	$7.05	$7.06	132
Texas	41,310	$7.03	$7.05	87
Florida	37,793	$7.05	$7.07	86
North Carolina	28,743	$7.04	$7.05	24
Ohio	13,384	$7.04	$7.05	21
Tennessee	12,669	$6.96	$7.07	46
Pennsylvania	11,484	$6.87	$6.88	28
Georgia	10,834	$7.04	$7.06	30
Illinois	10,723	$7.06	$7.06	31
Alabama	9,529	$7.04	$7.05	20
Massachusetts	5,835	$7.06	$7.06	13
Maryland	5,823	$7.05	$7.06	17
Arkansas	5,141	$6.87	$7.06	52
Kansas	5,109	$7.05	$7.06	8
Washington	4,814	$7.01	$7.02	15
South Carolina	4,263	$7.04	$7.06	19
Michigan	3,704	$7.05	$7.06	14
Oklahoma	3,477	$7.05	$7.06	6
Mississippi	3,468	$7.04	$7.06	12
Nevada	2,899	$7.04	$7.06	7
Virginia	2,255	$7.04	$7.06	9
Louisiana	1,981	$7.04	$7.06	11
Colorado	1,961	$7.05	$7.06	9
Hawaii	1,848	$7.03	$7.06	2
Wisconsin	1,369	$6.98	$7.06	10
Oregon	927	$7.05	$7.06	7
Kentucky	913	$7.00	$7.07	13
Iowa	863	$6.97	$7.06	12
Missouri	846	$7.04	$7.06	5
Utah	794	$6.96	$7.06	8
West Virginia	683	$7.05	$7.06	4
Minnesota	559	$7.01	$7.06	7
New Hampshire	538	$7.06	$7.06	4
New Mexico	473	$7.05	$7.07	2
Puerto Rico	392	$7.03	$7.03	7
Indiana	374	$7.04	$7.06	4
District of Columbia	366	$7.06	$7.06	4
Rhode Island	365	$7.04	$7.06	1
Nebraska	249	$7.00	$7.06	5
U.S. Virgin Islands	114	$7.06	$7.06	1
Alaska	92	$7.06	$7.06	5
Connecticut	92	$7.05	$7.05	4
Idaho	89	$7.06	$7.06	2
Maine	77	$7.06	$7.06	1
South Dakota	74	$7.06	$7.06	2
Montana	36	$7.06	$7.06	1
North Dakota	33	$7.06	$7.06	2

Related codes

82947Blood glucose (sugar) level$3.83
82962Blood glucose (sugar) test performed by hand-held instrument$3.18
82985Glycated protein level$16.27
82945Glucose (sugar) level on body fluid$3.83
82948Blood glucose (sugar) measurement$4.90
82955G6pd (enzyme) level$9.50
82950Blood glucose (sugar) level after receiving dose of glucose$4.53
82978Glutathione (protein) level$15.12
82941Gastrin (gi tract hormone) level$17.17
82951Blood glucose (sugar) tolerance test$12.59
82952Blood glucose (sugar) tolerance test$3.84

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.