How much does Medicare pay for CPT 85048?

Medicare allowed an average of $2.47 per service and paid $2.47 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $14.83, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 85048?

Automated white blood cell count. It was billed 30,255 times to 16,329 Medicare beneficiaries by 177 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 85048 most?

Clinical Laboratory, with 24,946 services from 101 clinicians. Next are Family Practice, Hematology-Oncology, Physician Assistant.

CPT 85048

Automated white blood cell count

$2.47Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 30,255 services

Providers submitted

$14.83

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$2.47

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$2.47

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $14.83 for this code and Medicare allowed $2.47 — 6.0× 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 $2.47 (100%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 30,255
Beneficiaries: 16,329
Providers billing it: 177
Total allowed: $74,730

What Medicare pays for CPT 85048

Across 30,255 services billed by 177 providers to 16,329 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $2.47 per service. That is 1.9 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 85048

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Clinical Laboratory	24,946	13,496	$2.47	101
Family Practice	1,841	1,086	$2.48	20
Hematology-Oncology	1,196	215	$2.47	1
Physician Assistant	418	404	$2.46	16
Nurse Practitioner	381	310	$2.47	12
Internal Medicine	343	256	$2.10	8
Pathology	320	93	$2.48	5
Cardiology	294	106	$2.49	1
Nephrology	189	44	$2.46	4
Emergency Medicine	132	125	$2.47	4
Pulmonary Disease	131	131	$2.43	4
Allergy/ Immunology	64	63	$2.49	1

85048 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	6,184	$2.49	$2.49	5
California	2,566	$2.49	$2.49	23
Massachusetts	2,438	$2.49	$2.49	6
Pennsylvania	2,013	$2.48	$2.49	6
Florida	1,979	$2.49	$2.49	8
Arizona	1,925	$2.42	$2.49	5
North Carolina	1,849	$2.48	$2.49	11
Wisconsin	1,797	$2.30	$2.49	12
Colorado	1,165	$2.49	$2.49	2
Ohio	1,114	$2.47	$2.49	5
New York	1,070	$2.49	$2.49	6
Illinois	1,000	$2.49	$2.49	3
South Dakota	841	$2.48	$2.49	6
Texas	607	$2.48	$2.49	6
Iowa	500	$2.47	$2.49	15
Virginia	389	$2.48	$2.49	8
Alabama	329	$2.48	$2.49	2
Nevada	327	$2.49	$2.49	2
Minnesota	313	$2.47	$2.49	7
Kansas	271	$2.49	$2.49	2
Missouri	189	$2.49	$2.49	2
Puerto Rico	188	$2.50	$2.49	2
Tennessee	151	$2.49	$2.49	4
Georgia	150	$2.49	$2.49	3
Michigan	97	$2.46	$2.49	4
Mississippi	92	$2.49	$2.49	1
Washington	87	$2.49	$2.49	2
Maryland	82	$2.49	$2.49	2
Hawaii	74	$2.49	$2.49	2
Oklahoma	57	$2.49	$2.49	1
North Dakota	55	$2.49	$2.49	1
South Carolina	52	$2.49	$2.49	1
Louisiana	52	$2.49	$2.49	2
New Hampshire	49	$2.49	$2.49	1
Wyoming	47	$2.49	$2.49	2
Oregon	46	$2.45	$2.49	2
Indiana	37	$2.49	$2.49	1
Utah	21	$2.49	$2.49	1
New Mexico	19	$2.49	$2.49	1
Kentucky	18	$2.49	$2.49	1
Connecticut	15	$2.49	$2.49	1

Related codes

85025Complete blood cell count (red cells$7.59
85027Complete blood cell count (red cells$6.33
85045Red blood count$3.90
85018Blood count, hemoglobin$2.31
85014Red blood cell concentration measurement$2.31
85007Microscopic examination for white blood cells$3.71
85060Blood smear interpretation by physician$23.02
85097Bone marrow, smear interpretation$51.39
85046Red blood count automated$5.44
85044Red blood count$4.21
85055Reticulated (young) platelet measurement$34.89
85049Platelet count$4.37

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.