CPT code 83700: Lipoprotein test, electrophoretic separation2026 Medicare lab fee · Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule
Electrophoretic lipoprotein testing separates and quantifies lipoprotein levels in a blood specimen for laboratory reporting under CPT 83700.
Medicare pays $11.26 for 83700 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
$11.26
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 83700 covers
83700 is a laboratory test that separates lipoproteins in a blood specimen by electrophoresis and quantifies the resulting lipoprotein levels. The reported service is the electrophoretic separation and quantitation, distinguishing it from a direct assay of one cholesterol measure and from particle-number testing. A clinical laboratory performs the analysis, and a clinician receives the reported results for evaluating lipid findings.
Medicare pays 83700 only through the CLFS. It has one national payment amount across states and localities, without geographic adjustment or a difference between office and facility settings. The 2026 national CLFS amount is $11.26, unchanged from 2020 through 2026. 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 83700
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 83700. 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 83700 with status X (excluded by statute), so the test itself is paid only from the CLFS.
83700 on the lab fee schedule since 2020
83700 · CLFS 2026 Q4 (current)
$11.26
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.
83700 compared with similar tests
- 83701Lipoprotein profileHigh-resolution fractions$33.86
- 83700 reports electrophoretic separation and quantitation. 83701 is the high-resolution lipoprotein fractionation service.
- 83704Lipoprotein particlesParticle-number quantitation$34.19
- Choose 83700 for electrophoretic quantitation of lipoprotein levels; 83704 is for lipoprotein particle quantitation.
- 83718HDL cholesterolDirect measurement$8.19
- 83718 assays HDL cholesterol. 83700 characterizes lipoprotein levels through electrophoretic separation and quantitation.
- 83721LDL cholesterolDirect LDL measurement$10.50
- 83721 assays LDL cholesterol; 83700 reports electrophoretic separation and quantitation of lipoprotein levels.
83700 billing questions
How does 83700 differ from a lipoprotein particle-number test?
83700 uses electrophoretic separation to quantify lipoprotein levels. Code 83704 is for lipoprotein particle quantitation.
What specimen is used for 83700?
83700 is a blood test.
Does 83700 directly measure HDL or LDL cholesterol?
No. It uses electrophoretic separation and quantitation; 83718 assays HDL cholesterol and 83721 assays LDL cholesterol.
How does Medicare pay 83700?
Medicare pays 83700 through the CLFS only. Payment is one national amount across localities, with no 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
Fee sheets
Put 83700 and the rest of your codes on one sheet
Your codes at your locality, with payer contracts beside Medicare.
Build my fee sheet