How much does Medicare pay for CPT 87150?

Medicare allowed an average of $34.30 per service and paid $34.30 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $64.71, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 87150?

Identification of organisms by genetic analysis, amplified probe technique. It was billed 1,455,748 times to 120,137 Medicare beneficiaries by 213 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 87150 most?

Clinical Laboratory, with 1,243,553 services from 147 clinicians. Next are Urology, Pathology, Podiatry.

CPT 87150

Identification of organisms by genetic analysis, amplified probe technique

$34.30Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 1,455,748 services

Providers submitted

$64.71

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$34.30

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$34.30

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $64.71 for this code and Medicare allowed $34.30 — 1.9× 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 $34.30 (100%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 1,455,748
Beneficiaries: 120,137
Providers billing it: 213
Total allowed: $49,932,156

What Medicare pays for CPT 87150

Across 1,455,748 services billed by 213 providers to 120,137 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $34.30 per service. That is 12.1 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 87150

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Clinical Laboratory	1,243,553	109,534	$34.33	147
Urology	113,263	4,253	$34.23	24
Pathology	47,430	3,103	$34.35	7
Podiatry	23,391	1,410	$32.97	11
Internal Medicine	11,395	625	$34.39	2
Nurse Practitioner	9,684	681	$34.39	12
Physician Assistant	3,734	269	$34.39	5
Family Practice	3,279	244	$34.39	4
Infectious Disease	19	18	$34.39	1

87150 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
Texas	348,337	$34.24	$34.29	40
California	256,726	$34.39	$34.39	45
Florida	219,231	$34.38	$34.39	43
Arizona	169,329	$34.39	$34.39	3
Pennsylvania	136,090	$34.38	$34.39	6
Indiana	112,516	$34.39	$34.39	1
New Jersey	63,829	$33.71	$34.13	12
Oklahoma	60,415	$34.39	$34.39	5
Virginia	25,528	$34.37	$34.38	3
New York	19,354	$33.03	$34.39	7
Illinois	18,885	$34.37	$34.39	13
Louisiana	5,554	$34.18	$34.39	2
Mississippi	5,084	$34.39	$34.39	3
Maryland	4,668	$34.39	$34.39	1
Colorado	2,297	$34.39	$34.39	2
Idaho	2,170	$34.39	$34.39	7
North Carolina	1,611	$34.22	$34.22	4
Nevada	1,478	$34.39	$34.39	1
Ohio	763	$34.35	$34.39	4
Missouri	760	$34.39	$34.39	1
Alabama	274	$34.39	$34.39	1
Iowa	228	$34.39	$34.39	1
Minnesota	210	$34.35	$34.39	2
South Dakota	137	$34.39	$34.39	1
Wisconsin	115	$34.39	$34.39	1
Washington	74	$34.39	$34.39	1
Tennessee	46	$34.39	$34.39	1
Kansas	20	$34.39	$34.39	1
Arkansas	19	$34.39	$34.39	1

Related codes

87186Evaluation of antimicrobial drug (antibiotic$8.47
87177Smear for parasites$8.69
87184Evaluation of antimicrobial drug (antibiotic$7.32
87147Identification of organisms by immunologic analysis$5.08
87101Fungal culture (mold or yeast) of skin$7.56
87102Fungal culture (mold or yeast)$8.23
87116Culture for acid-fast bacilli$10.56
87106Fungal culture$10.10
87181Evaluation of antimicrobial drug (antibiotic$4.63
87107Culture for identification of yeast$10.11
87185Detection of antimicrobial drug (antibiotic$4.65
87118Identification of mycobacteria (tb or tb like organism)$14.31

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.