How much does Medicare pay for CPT 87420?

Medicare allowed an average of $13.54 per service and paid $13.54 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $84.63, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 87420?

Detection test by immunoassay technique for respiratory syncytial virus (rsv). It was billed 3,714 times to 3,522 Medicare beneficiaries by 124 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 87420 most?

Nurse Practitioner, with 1,260 services from 52 clinicians. Next are Clinical Laboratory, Physician Assistant, Internal Medicine.

CPT 87420

Detection test by immunoassay technique for respiratory syncytial virus (rsv)

$13.54Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 3,714 services

Providers submitted

$84.63

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$13.54

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$13.54

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $84.63 for this code and Medicare allowed $13.54 — 6.3× 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 $13.54 (100%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 3,714
Beneficiaries: 3,522
Providers billing it: 124
Total allowed: $50,288

What Medicare pays for CPT 87420

Across 3,714 services billed by 124 providers to 3,522 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $13.54 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 87420

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Nurse Practitioner	1,260	1,207	$13.43	52
Clinical Laboratory	836	774	$13.63	15
Physician Assistant	596	563	$13.60	17
Internal Medicine	575	552	$13.61	19
Family Practice	379	362	$13.56	19
General Practice	68	64	$13.63	2

87420 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	1,355	$13.44	$13.63	43
California	428	$13.63	$13.63	16
Florida	280	$13.63	$13.63	6
Delaware	258	$13.63	$13.63	2
New Jersey	195	$13.63	$13.63	7
North Carolina	192	$13.63	$13.63	2
Virginia	169	$13.47	$13.63	8
Alabama	159	$13.63	$13.63	6
Illinois	106	$13.63	$13.63	4
Ohio	59	$13.44	$13.63	3
Indiana	58	$13.63	$13.63	2
Arkansas	52	$13.63	$13.63	1
New Mexico	45	$13.63	$13.63	2
Arizona	40	$13.63	$13.63	2
Maryland	32	$13.63	$13.63	2
Louisiana	31	$13.63	$13.63	2
Missouri	30	$13.63	$13.63	2
New York	27	$13.13	$13.63	2
Oklahoma	26	$13.63	$13.63	1
Tennessee	25	$13.13	$13.63	1
Washington	23	$13.63	$13.63	1
Pennsylvania	17	$13.63	$13.63	1
Michigan	16	$13.63	$13.63	1
Kentucky	14	$13.63	$13.63	1
Alaska	14	$13.63	$13.63	1
West Virginia	13	$13.63	$13.63	1
Oregon	13	$13.63	$13.63	1
South Carolina	13	$13.63	$13.63	1
Massachusetts	13	$13.63	$13.63	1
Maine	11	$13.63	$13.63	1

Related codes

87481Detection test for candida species (yeast)$34.05
87426Detection test by immunoassay technique for severe acute respiratory s$34.33
87428Detection test by immunoassay technique for severe acute respiratory s$67.08
87486Detection test by nucleic acid for chlamydia pneumoniae$34.36
87491Detection test by nucleic acid for chlamydia trachomatis$34.35
87449Detection test by immunoassay technique for other organism$11.73
87498Detection test by nucleic acid for enterovirus (intestinal virus)$34.38
87497Detection test by nucleic acid for cytomegalovirus$41.82
87493Detection test by nucleic acid for clostridium difficile$36.38
87427Detection test by immunoassay technique for shiga-like toxin (bacteria$11.69
87496Detection test by nucleic acid for cytomegalovirus (cmv)$34.38
87400Detection test by immunoassay technique for influenza virus$13.75

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.