CPT code 82710: Fecal fat, quantitative stool lipids2026 Medicare lab fee · Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule
Quantitative stool lipid testing measures fecal fat and is reported when clinicians assess suspected fat malabsorption.
Medicare pays $16.80 for 82710 under the 2026 Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule: one national amount, the same in every state and setting.
Medicare lab fee · CLFS 2026 Q4
National CLFS amount
$16.80
In effect since Jan 1, 2026. The same amount in every state, payment locality and setting.
- Geographic adjustment
- None
- Office vs facility
- Same
- Since 2020
- Unchanged
- CMS updates
- Quarterly
Medicare pays the lesser of the lab’s charge and this amount. Patients usually owe no Part B deductible or coinsurance for covered clinical lab tests.
On this page 8 sections
What 82710 covers
This laboratory test measures the amount of fat or lipids in a stool specimen. Clinicians may order it when greasy stools or chronic diarrhea raise concern for fat malabsorption, including possible exocrine pancreatic dysfunction. Gastroenterology and primary care practices may request the analysis; a clinical laboratory performs and reports the result.
Report this code for quantitative stool fat analysis rather than a qualitative fecal fat test. Medicare pays the test only under the CLFS. The 2026 national CLFS amount is $16.80, unchanged since 2020; one amount applies across localities, with no office-versus-facility difference. The physician fee schedule excludes this test by statute.
This summary was written with AI assistance from CMS Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule data. Amounts on this page come directly from CMS files.
How Medicare pays 82710
Clinical lab tests aren’t priced like physician services. They’re paid from their own fee schedule, with its own rules. See the whole lab fee schedule.
One national amount
CMS sets a single Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule amount for 82710. There’s no geographic (GPCI) adjustment, so it pays the same in every state and payment locality.
No office or facility rate
Lab tests aren’t built from relative value units, so there’s no office and facility split: the place of service doesn’t change the CLFS amount.
Updated every quarter
CMS republishes the CLFS each quarter. New tests, often proprietary laboratory analyses (PLA codes), join during the year; existing amounts are updated each January.
Excluded from the physician fee schedule
The physician fee schedule lists 82710 with status X (excluded by statute), so the test itself is paid only from the CLFS.
82710 on the lab fee schedule since 2020
82710 · CLFS 2026 Q4 (current)
$16.80
Unchanged since Jan 1, 2020
27 quarterly CLFS releases on file, first CLFS 2020 Q1. A code missing from a quarter wasn’t on that release.
82710 compared with similar tests
- 82705Stool fat testQualitative$5.10
- Choose 82710 for quantitative fecal fat measurement and 82705 when the laboratory performs a qualitative stool fat test.
- 82715Fecal fatQuantitative differential$22.97
- 82715 identifies a separate fecal-fat assay. Select the code that matches the assay performed rather than relying only on the shared stool-fat topic.
- 82725Blood fatty acidsNonesterified fatty acids$18.77
- 82725 measures fatty acids in blood, whereas 82710 is quantitative analysis of fat or lipids in stool.
82710 billing questions
How does this differ from 82705?
82710 is for quantitative stool fat analysis. Use 82705 when the laboratory performs a qualitative fecal fat test.
What specimen is tested?
The test analyzes a stool specimen for its fat or lipid content.
Does 82710 report a quantitative or qualitative result?
It is used for quantitative stool fat or lipid analysis.
Is a separate physician interpretation paid under the physician fee schedule?
Medicare pays this test only through the CLFS; it is excluded from the physician fee schedule by statute.
Does Medicare payment vary by location or setting?
No. The CLFS amount is national and applies across localities without an office-versus-facility difference.
Where this amount comes from
FeeBase reads lab amounts directly from the CMS Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule file for the quarter: one row per code, with its payment indicator and national amount. Contractor-priced tests are labeled, never given a made-up amount. Amounts are Medicare payment limits, not a patient’s bill or a commercial rate.
CMS CLFS 2026 Q4 · effective Oct 1, 2026 through the day before Jan 1, 2027
Show the CMS file line behind this amount
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