How much does Medicare pay for CPT 87650?

Medicare allowed an average of $19.65 per service and paid $19.65 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $42.07, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 87650?

Detection test by nucleic acid for strep (streptococcus, group a), direct probe technique. It was billed 2,491 times to 1,548 Medicare beneficiaries by 11 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 87650 most?

Pathology, with 1,804 services from 1 clinicians. Next are Clinical Laboratory, Podiatry, Family Practice.

CPT 87650

Detection test by nucleic acid for strep (streptococcus, group a), direct probe technique

$19.65Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 2,491 services

Providers submitted

$42.07

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$19.65

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$19.65

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $42.07 for this code and Medicare allowed $19.65 — 2.1× 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 $19.65 (100%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 2,491
Beneficiaries: 1,548
Providers billing it: 11
Total allowed: $48,948

What Medicare pays for CPT 87650

Across 2,491 services billed by 11 providers to 1,548 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $19.65 per service. That is 1.6 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 87650

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Pathology	1,804	939	$19.65	1
Clinical Laboratory	341	299	$19.65	5
Podiatry	302	268	$19.65	3
Family Practice	26	25	$19.65	1
General Practice	18	17	$19.65	1

87650 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	2,179	$19.65	$19.65	6
Florida	203	$19.65	$19.65	1
Colorado	52	$19.65	$19.65	2
Pennsylvania	31	$19.65	$19.65	1
Maryland	26	$19.65	$19.65	1

Related codes

87640Detection test by nucleic acid for staphylococcus aureus (bacteria)$34.35
87653Detection test by nucleic acid for strep (streptococcus$34.36
87635Amplifed dna or rna probe detection of severe acute respiratory syndro$50.11
87651Detection test by nucleic acid for strep (streptococcus$34.33
87641Detection test by nucleic acid for staphylococcus aureus$34.36
87637Detection test by multiplex amplified probe technique for severe acute$139.09
87631Detection test by nucleic acid for multiple types of respiratory virus$139.46
87624Detection test by nucleic acid for human papillomavirus (hpv)$34.30
87636Detection test by multiplex amplified probe technique for severe acute$138.39
87661Detection test by nucleic acid for trichomonas vaginalis (genital para$34.30
87634Detection test by nucleic acid for respiratory syncytial virus$68.72
87652Detection test by nucleic acid for strep (streptococcus$40.89

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.