CPT 86618
Analysis for antibody borrelia burgdorferi (lyme disease bacteria)
Asking price, not received
The fee schedule figure
Balance is patient coinsurance
Providers submitted an average of $146.90 for this code and Medicare allowed $16.68 — 8.8× 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 $16.68 (100%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.
- Services
- 158,397
- Beneficiaries
- 134,964
- Providers billing it
- 355
- Total allowed
- $2,642,062
Medicare Part B, 2024
Services × allowed amount
What Medicare pays for CPT 86618
Across 158,397 services billed by 355 providers to 134,964 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $16.68 per service. That is 1.2 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 86618
| Specialty | Services | Beneficiaries | Avg allowed | Providers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clinical Laboratory | 149,901 | 128,461 | $16.68 | 154 |
| Rheumatology | 2,044 | 1,785 | $16.69 | 18 |
| Family Practice | 1,493 | 1,056 | $16.67 | 46 |
| Pathology | 1,476 | 960 | $16.53 | 4 |
| Internal Medicine | 1,425 | 1,115 | $16.67 | 55 |
| Nurse Practitioner | 568 | 411 | $16.69 | 24 |
| Physician Assistant | 554 | 360 | $16.63 | 19 |
| Neurology | 379 | 340 | $16.69 | 12 |
| Hematology-Oncology | 197 | 183 | $16.60 | 9 |
| Emergency Medicine | 148 | 100 | $16.69 | 5 |
| Medical Oncology | 91 | 86 | $16.69 | 4 |
| Infectious Disease | 47 | 45 | $16.46 | 1 |
| General Practice | 22 | 11 | $16.69 | 1 |
| Hospitalist | 21 | 21 | $16.69 | 1 |
| Gastroenterology | 19 | 18 | $16.69 | 1 |
86618 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 | 53,844 | $16.68 | $16.69 | 22 |
| New York | 26,629 | $16.68 | $16.69 | 147 |
| North Carolina | 14,868 | $16.68 | $16.69 | 5 |
| Massachusetts | 13,417 | $16.69 | $16.69 | 30 |
| California | 7,283 | $16.68 | $16.69 | 10 |
| Pennsylvania | 6,855 | $16.66 | $16.69 | 14 |
| Florida | 5,705 | $16.69 | $16.69 | 10 |
| Maryland | 4,630 | $16.67 | $16.69 | 17 |
| Ohio | 3,221 | $16.65 | $16.69 | 9 |
| Georgia | 2,518 | $16.69 | $16.69 | 1 |
| Tennessee | 2,473 | $16.67 | $16.69 | 3 |
| Texas | 2,309 | $16.67 | $16.69 | 6 |
| Wisconsin | 2,050 | $16.53 | $16.69 | 4 |
| Kansas | 1,857 | $16.69 | $16.69 | 5 |
| Illinois | 1,718 | $16.69 | $16.69 | 1 |
| Virginia | 1,626 | $16.66 | $16.69 | 6 |
| Alabama | 1,210 | $16.68 | $16.69 | 3 |
| Minnesota | 1,124 | $16.61 | $16.69 | 8 |
| Rhode Island | 933 | $16.63 | $16.69 | 1 |
| Oklahoma | 669 | $16.60 | $16.69 | 3 |
| Arizona | 475 | $16.69 | $16.69 | 3 |
| Iowa | 473 | $16.69 | $16.69 | 4 |
| Maine | 472 | $16.66 | $16.69 | 4 |
| Kentucky | 357 | $16.53 | $16.69 | 2 |
| Connecticut | 258 | $16.65 | $16.69 | 4 |
| Indiana | 222 | $16.69 | $16.69 | 1 |
| Washington | 185 | $16.69 | $16.69 | 4 |
| Michigan | 173 | $16.67 | $16.69 | 5 |
| Colorado | 171 | $16.69 | $16.69 | 2 |
| Nevada | 162 | $16.69 | $16.69 | 1 |
| South Dakota | 106 | $16.68 | $16.69 | 2 |
| Oregon | 93 | $16.69 | $16.69 | 3 |
| New Hampshire | 55 | $16.69 | $16.69 | 3 |
| Hawaii | 51 | $16.69 | $16.69 | 2 |
| Mississippi | 41 | $16.69 | $16.69 | 1 |
| Vermont | 40 | $16.69 | $16.69 | 1 |
| South Carolina | 34 | $16.69 | $16.69 | 2 |
| Nebraska | 23 | $16.69 | $16.69 | 1 |
| New Mexico | 17 | $16.69 | $16.69 | 1 |
| Delaware | 14 | $16.69 | $16.69 | 1 |
| North Dakota | 14 | $16.69 | $16.69 | 1 |
| Missouri | 11 | $16.69 | $16.69 | 1 |
| Louisiana | 11 | $16.69 | $16.69 | 1 |
Related codes
- 86617Confirmation test for antibody to borrelia burgdorferi (lyme disease b$15.17
- 86635Analysis for antibody to coccidioides (bacteria)$11.21
- 86666Analysis for antibody to ehrlichia (bacteria transmitted by ticks)$9.97
- 86665Analysis for antibody to epstein-barr virus (mononucleosis virus)$17.75
- 86609Analysis for antibody bacteria$12.54
- 86684Analysis for antibody to haemophilus influenza (respiratory bacteria)$15.52
- 86677Analysis for antibody to helicobacter pylori (gastrointestinal bacteri$16.50
- 86664Analysis for antibody to epstein-barr virus (mononucleosis virus)$14.96
- 86696Analysis for antibody to herpes simplex virus$18.92
- 86695Analysis for antibody to herpes simplex virus$12.91
- 86671Analysis for antibody to fungus$11.99
- 86606Analysis for antibody to aspergillus (fungus)$14.64
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.