How much does Medicare pay for CPT 83615?

Medicare allowed an average of $5.89 per service and paid $5.89 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $32.40, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 83615?

Lactate dehydrogenase (enzyme) level. It was billed 1,288,638 times to 641,222 Medicare beneficiaries by 2,744 providers in 2024.

Does 83615 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $5.89 in an office setting and $5.92 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 83615 most?

Clinical Laboratory, with 626,593 services from 415 clinicians. Next are Hematology-Oncology, Medical Oncology, Pathology.

CPT 83615

Lactate dehydrogenase (enzyme) level

$5.89Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 1,288,638 services

Providers submitted

$32.40

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$5.89

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$5.89

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $32.40 for this code and Medicare allowed $5.89 — 5.5× 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 $5.89 (100%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $5.89
Hospital / facility: $5.92

The facility rate is higher for this code, which is unusual and generally means the service depends on equipment or staffing a hospital carries. 1,288,022 services were billed in an office setting and 616 in a facility.

Services: 1,288,638
Beneficiaries: 641,222
Providers billing it: 2,744
Total allowed: $7,590,078

What Medicare pays for CPT 83615

Across 1,288,638 services billed by 2,744 providers to 641,222 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $5.89 per service. That is 2.0 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 83615

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Clinical Laboratory	626,593	332,356	$5.87	415
Hematology-Oncology	346,060	150,983	$5.90	1,072
Medical Oncology	103,251	41,315	$5.90	347
Pathology	83,136	43,910	$5.91	32
Internal Medicine	44,089	24,815	$5.90	213
Nurse Practitioner	21,630	13,754	$5.90	311
Family Practice	19,325	12,056	$5.91	80
Hematology	14,217	5,932	$5.90	26
Rheumatology	8,922	3,948	$5.91	23
Physician Assistant	7,696	4,449	$5.90	118
Hospitalist	2,937	1,578	$5.92	3
Gynecological Oncology	2,089	281	$5.91	8
Cardiology	2,050	1,528	$5.91	11
Gastroenterology	1,210	607	$5.78	8
Urology	1,031	821	$5.92	18

83615 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	173,317	$5.86	$5.87	80
California	148,209	$5.89	$5.90	179
New York	147,289	$5.91	$5.92	349
Florida	131,264	$5.89	$5.92	130
Texas	129,339	$5.89	$5.91	490
North Carolina	46,498	$5.90	$5.90	52
Arizona	41,843	$5.78	$5.80	9
Illinois	36,111	$5.90	$5.92	126
Arkansas	35,507	$5.89	$5.92	51
Tennessee	33,266	$5.89	$5.92	169
Virginia	24,512	$5.90	$5.92	124
Ohio	23,030	$5.89	$5.90	45
Georgia	22,862	$5.91	$5.92	49
Pennsylvania	22,684	$5.91	$5.92	44
Alabama	21,615	$5.88	$5.90	63
Nevada	21,255	$5.89	$5.92	50
South Carolina	21,199	$5.90	$5.92	55
Kansas	18,851	$5.91	$5.92	21
Oklahoma	18,720	$5.90	$5.92	20
Maryland	16,707	$5.91	$5.92	56
Nebraska	12,962	$5.89	$5.90	27
Washington	12,825	$5.86	$5.88	45
Massachusetts	12,247	$5.92	$5.92	22
Minnesota	11,503	$5.90	$5.92	57
Missouri	11,023	$5.90	$5.92	12
Michigan	10,049	$5.89	$5.92	50
Colorado	9,225	$5.89	$5.91	42
Mississippi	9,190	$5.87	$5.92	18
Oregon	7,991	$5.90	$5.92	44
Wisconsin	6,950	$5.85	$5.92	21
New Mexico	6,748	$5.89	$5.92	10
Iowa	6,460	$5.89	$5.92	59
Louisiana	5,758	$5.91	$5.92	15
Indiana	5,466	$5.84	$5.92	32
Hawaii	4,998	$5.90	$5.92	6
Connecticut	4,657	$5.91	$5.92	17
North Dakota	4,207	$5.91	$5.92	3
Utah	3,035	$5.90	$5.92	33
Alaska	2,082	$5.91	$5.92	7
Maine	1,757	$5.91	$5.92	12
Rhode Island	1,000	$5.90	$5.92	1
Kentucky	982	$5.88	$5.92	7
West Virginia	882	$5.91	$5.92	7
Puerto Rico	809	$5.75	$5.75	11
South Dakota	469	$5.92	$5.92	2
Wyoming	310	$5.88	$5.92	6
Vermont	266	$5.92	$5.92	2
Delaware	254	$5.91	$5.92	3
Montana	164	$5.89	$5.92	4
New Hampshire	156	$5.83	$5.83	4
Idaho	135	$5.92	$5.93	3

Related codes

83690Lipase (fat enzyme) level$6.74
83695Lipoprotein (a) level$13.99
83698Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase a2 (enzyme) level$45.28
83625Lactate dehydrogenase (enzyme) measurement$12.53
83655Lead level$11.84
83605Lactic acid level$11.31
83631Stool lactoferrin (immune system protein) level$19.22
83630Stool lactoferrin (immune system protein) analysis$19.26

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.