How much does Medicare pay for CPT 87177?

Medicare allowed an average of $8.69 per service and paid $8.69 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $46.85, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 87177?

Smear for parasites. It was billed 123,468 times to 110,378 Medicare beneficiaries by 181 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 87177 most?

Clinical Laboratory, with 119,497 services from 173 clinicians. Next are Pathology, Emergency Medicine, Family Practice.

CPT 87177

Smear for parasites

$8.69Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 123,468 services

Providers submitted

$46.85

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$8.69

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$8.69

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $46.85 for this code and Medicare allowed $8.69 — 5.4× 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 $8.69 (100%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 123,468
Beneficiaries: 110,378
Providers billing it: 181
Total allowed: $1,072,937

What Medicare pays for CPT 87177

Across 123,468 services billed by 181 providers to 110,378 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $8.69 per service. 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 87177

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Clinical Laboratory	119,497	106,494	$8.69	173
Pathology	3,932	3,847	$8.72	6
Emergency Medicine	28	26	$8.72	1
Family Practice	11	11	$8.72	1

87177 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	23,322	$8.72	$8.72	14
North Carolina	17,643	$8.72	$8.72	5
California	13,916	$8.71	$8.72	18
Florida	12,119	$8.72	$8.72	18
Texas	10,487	$8.71	$8.72	10
Arizona	9,838	$8.71	$8.72	4
Alabama	4,677	$8.69	$8.72	6
Massachusetts	3,353	$8.72	$8.72	5
Washington	3,163	$8.71	$8.72	5
Virginia	2,984	$8.40	$8.72	6
Ohio	2,792	$8.68	$8.72	7
New York	2,561	$8.71	$8.72	7
Illinois	2,117	$8.72	$8.72	5
Maryland	1,654	$8.69	$8.72	5
Tennessee	1,584	$8.70	$8.72	3
Missouri	1,498	$8.72	$8.72	1
Pennsylvania	1,297	$8.71	$8.72	4
Oregon	991	$8.67	$8.72	3
Hawaii	921	$8.69	$8.72	2
Minnesota	884	$8.70	$8.72	5
Oklahoma	856	$8.18	$8.72	3
Nevada	855	$8.72	$8.72	3
Wisconsin	765	$8.70	$8.72	3
Connecticut	762	$8.71	$8.72	2
Colorado	532	$8.72	$8.72	3
Kentucky	360	$8.64	$8.72	2
Michigan	176	$4.58	$4.63	5
Rhode Island	174	$8.72	$8.72	1
Puerto Rico	165	$8.28	$8.72	1
Iowa	146	$8.67	$8.72	4
South Dakota	133	$8.67	$8.72	3
Maine	130	$8.72	$8.72	1
Louisiana	119	$8.72	$8.72	2
Mississippi	103	$8.66	$8.72	2
Kansas	94	$8.72	$8.72	3
Nebraska	52	$8.72	$8.72	1
Indiana	49	$8.72	$8.72	1
U.S. Virgin Islands	46	$8.72	$8.72	2
New Mexico	43	$8.72	$8.72	1
Georgia	37	$8.72	$8.72	1
Utah	33	$8.72	$8.72	1
Delaware	22	$8.72	$8.72	2
North Dakota	15	$8.72	$8.72	1

Related codes

87186Evaluation of antimicrobial drug (antibiotic$8.47
87150Identification of organisms by genetic analysis$34.30
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.