How much does Medicare pay for CPT 83986?

Medicare allowed an average of $3.50 per service and paid $3.50 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $17.56, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 83986?

Body fluid ph level. It was billed 109,337 times to 84,573 Medicare beneficiaries by 242 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 83986 most?

Clinical Laboratory, with 74,065 services from 67 clinicians. Next are Urology, Physician Assistant, Nurse Practitioner.

CPT 83986

Body fluid ph level

$3.50Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 109,337 services

Providers submitted

$17.56

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$3.50

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$3.50

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $17.56 for this code and Medicare allowed $3.50 — 5.0× 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 $3.50 (100%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 109,337
Beneficiaries: 84,573
Providers billing it: 242
Total allowed: $382,680

What Medicare pays for CPT 83986

Across 109,337 services billed by 242 providers to 84,573 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $3.50 per service. That is 1.3 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 83986

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Clinical Laboratory	74,065	59,309	$3.51	67
Urology	21,721	15,149	$3.50	51
Physician Assistant	4,837	3,980	$3.44	27
Nurse Practitioner	3,531	2,719	$3.50	34
Obstetrics & Gynecology	3,501	2,540	$3.50	52
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation	1,017	366	$3.50	2
Nephrology	279	238	$3.51	1
Internal Medicine	180	148	$3.51	3
Infectious Disease	82	36	$3.47	1
Anesthesiology	52	30	$3.24	1
Family Practice	31	21	$3.51	1
Emergency Medicine	27	25	$3.51	1
Certified Nurse Midwife	14	12	$3.51	1

83986 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
Illinois	56,289	$3.51	$3.51	5
Oklahoma	7,955	$3.49	$3.51	13
Missouri	5,806	$3.51	$3.51	7
Massachusetts	5,188	$3.51	$3.51	22
Florida	4,573	$3.50	$3.51	15
Delaware	4,141	$3.49	$3.51	9
Arkansas	3,368	$3.49	$3.51	3
New Jersey	2,308	$3.51	$3.51	5
Texas	2,242	$3.50	$3.51	15
California	2,060	$3.50	$3.51	12
Maine	1,949	$3.50	$3.51	5
Alaska	1,630	$3.48	$3.51	11
Pennsylvania	1,520	$3.50	$3.51	11
Louisiana	1,358	$3.50	$3.51	7
Minnesota	1,153	$3.50	$3.51	6
Mississippi	927	$3.47	$3.51	4
New York	925	$3.51	$3.51	9
Ohio	821	$3.51	$3.51	10
Arizona	785	$3.50	$3.51	3
Georgia	713	$3.50	$3.51	16
Tennessee	674	$3.23	$3.51	9
Indiana	429	$3.51	$3.51	2
Wisconsin	305	$3.47	$3.51	4
Connecticut	284	$3.51	$3.51	5
Kansas	264	$3.51	$3.51	3
North Carolina	245	$3.50	$3.51	3
Virginia	237	$3.50	$3.51	1
New Hampshire	223	$3.51	$3.51	2
Michigan	187	$3.49	$3.51	5
Alabama	162	$3.49	$3.51	3
Nevada	107	$3.51	$3.51	1
Hawaii	103	$3.50	$3.51	1
Colorado	62	$3.51	$3.51	1
South Carolina	57	$3.51	$3.51	3
West Virginia	57	$3.51	$3.51	2
Oregon	57	$3.51	$3.51	1
Maryland	44	$3.51	$3.51	2
Washington	42	$3.51	$3.51	2
New Mexico	34	$3.51	$3.51	1
Nebraska	21	$3.51	$3.51	1
Iowa	20	$3.51	$3.51	1
Rhode Island	12	$3.51	$3.51	1

Related codes

83970Parathormone (parathyroid hormone) level$40.37
83921Organic acid level$20.73
83993Stool calprotectin (protein) level$19.22
83935Urine osmolality (concentration) measurement$6.67
83945Oxalate level$14.15
83930Blood osmolality (concentration) measurement$6.48
83937Osteocalcin (bone protein) level$29.21
83915Nucleotidase 5' (enzyme) level$10.93
83951Oncoprotein (cancer related gene) measurement$63.03

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.