CPT code 82746: Folate test, serum specimen2026 Medicare lab fee · Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule
Measures folate in serum to evaluate suspected folate deficiency, including as part of the workup for macrocytic anemia or nutritional concerns.
Medicare pays $14.70 for 82746 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
$14.70
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 82746 covers
This laboratory assay measures folate in a serum specimen. Clinicians may order it when evaluating suspected folate deficiency, macrocytic anemia, or nutritional concerns. Primary care clinicians and hematologists commonly use the result alongside the patient’s history and other laboratory findings; a clinical laboratory performs the assay and reports the result.
Report 82746 for the serum folate assay; use 82747 when the test measures folate in red blood cells instead. Medicare pays this test only through the Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (CLFS), not the physician fee schedule. The 2026 national CLFS amount is $14.70, unchanged from 2020 through 2026. The same CLFS amount applies across states and localities, without a geographic or office-versus-facility adjustment.
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 82746
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 82746. 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 82746 with status X (excluded by statute), so the test itself is paid only from the CLFS.
82746 on the lab fee schedule since 2020
82746 · CLFS 2026 Q4 (current)
$14.70
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.
82746 compared with similar tests
- 82747RBC folateRed blood cell level$17.65
- 82746 measures folate in serum; 82747 is for folate measured in red blood cells. Select according to the specimen and assay performed.
- 82607Vitamin B12Level assay$15.08
- 82607 measures vitamin B12, not folate. The tests may be ordered together during an evaluation of macrocytic anemia or nutritional deficiency.
- 82728FerritinBlood ferritin level$13.63
- 82728 measures ferritin, an indicator of iron stores; it is not a folate assay.
82746 billing questions
When should 82746 be reported instead of 82747?
Use 82746 for a serum folate assay. Use 82747 when the laboratory measures folate in red blood cells.
What specimen does 82746 represent?
It represents folate measured in serum. Do not report it for a red blood cell folate assay.
How does Medicare price this test?
Medicare pays one national CLFS amount for the code in every state and locality, with no office-versus-facility difference.
Can 82746 be billed with vitamin B12 testing?
The tests may be ordered together in a macrocytic anemia or nutritional evaluation; 82746 represents serum folate, while 82607 represents vitamin B12.
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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