How much does Medicare pay for CPT 87521?

Medicare allowed an average of $32.66 per service and paid $32.66 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $123.49, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 87521?

Detection test by nucleic acid for hepatitis c virus, amplified probe technique. It was billed 1,816 times to 1,664 Medicare beneficiaries by 18 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 87521 most?

Clinical Laboratory, with 1,480 services from 15 clinicians. Next are Internal Medicine, Pathology, Family Practice.

CPT 87521

Detection test by nucleic acid for hepatitis c virus, amplified probe technique

$32.66Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 1,816 services

Providers submitted

$123.49

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$32.66

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$32.66

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $123.49 for this code and Medicare allowed $32.66 — 3.8× 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 $32.66 (100%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 1,816
Beneficiaries: 1,664
Providers billing it: 18
Total allowed: $59,311

What Medicare pays for CPT 87521

Across 1,816 services billed by 18 providers to 1,664 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $32.66 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 87521

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Clinical Laboratory	1,480	1,331	$32.29	15
Internal Medicine	238	236	$34.39	1
Pathology	64	63	$33.91	1
Family Practice	34	34	$34.39	1

87521 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 York	520	$34.39	$34.39	1
Maryland	272	$34.39	$34.39	2
Oregon	207	$33.96	$34.39	1
California	179	$34.39	$34.39	3
Minnesota	139	$15.02	$34.39	1
Florida	126	$31.96	$34.39	1
Tennessee	118	$34.13	$34.39	2
Wisconsin	118	$34.39	$34.39	1
Pennsylvania	68	$34.01	$34.39	2
Ohio	20	$34.39	$34.39	1
Texas	18	$34.39	$34.39	1
Massachusetts	16	$34.39	$34.39	1
Arizona	15	$34.39	$34.39	1

Related codes

87500Detection test by nucleic acid for vancomycin resistance strep (vre)$34.35
87581Detection test by nucleic acid for mycoplasma pneumoniae (bacteria)$34.37
87591Detection test by nucleic acid for neisseria gonorrhoeae (gonorrhoeae$34.35
87502Detection test by nucleic acid for multiple types influenza virus$92.99
87529Detection test by nucleic acid for herpes simplex virus$34.33
87563Detection of mycoplasma genitalium by dna or rna probe$34.36
87541Detection test by nucleic acid for legionella pneumophila (water borne$34.38
87556Detection test by nucleic acid for mycobacteria tuberculosis (tb bacte$40.79
87511Detection test for gardnerella vaginalis (bacteria)$34.34
87536Detection test by nucleic acid for hiv-1 virus$83.30
87522Detection test by nucleic acid for hepatitis c virus$41.95
87532Detection test by nucleic acid for herpes virus-6$34.38

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.