CPT code 86850: Antibody screen, red blood cell antibodies2026 Medicare lab fee · Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule
Screens a patient's serum for red blood cell antibodies, commonly before transfusion or during pregnancy-related antibody testing.
Medicare pays $9.77 for 86850 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
$9.77
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 86850 covers
This test screens a patient's serum for antibodies that may react with red blood cell antigens. Hospital transfusion services and blood bank laboratories commonly perform it as part of pretransfusion testing; clinicians also order it in pregnancy-related antibody screening. A reactive screen can prompt additional testing to identify the antibody and guide selection of compatible red blood cells.
Report one service for each serum technique performed, not for the number of antibodies detected. When antibody identification is performed after a reactive screen, that work is reported separately. Medicare pays 86850 only through the Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule. The 2026 national CLFS amount is $9.77 and has been unchanged since 2020; the same amount applies in every locality, 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 86850
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 86850. 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 86850 with status X (excluded by statute), so the test itself is paid only from the CLFS.
86850 on the lab fee schedule since 2020
86850 · CLFS 2026 Q4 (current)
$9.77
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.
86850 compared with similar tests
- 86870RBC antibody IDPer antibody panelNo national amount
- Use 86850 for the initial antibody screen; use 86870 when testing identifies the specificity of antibodies detected.
- 86880Direct CoombsEach antiserum$5.39
- 86850 screens serum for red blood cell antibodies. 86880 is a direct antiglobulin test that detects antibodies or complement attached to red blood cells.
- 86885Indirect CoombsQualitative, each reagent cell$5.72
- 86850 is the red blood cell antibody screening service. 86885 describes a qualitative indirect antiglobulin test.
- 86886Antibody titerIndirect antiglobulin method$5.18
- 86850 screens for red blood cell antibodies; 86886 reports an indirect antiglobulin titer rather than the screening service.
86850 billing questions
How does 86850 differ from 86870?
86850 screens for red blood cell antibodies. Report 86870 when additional testing identifies the specificity of an antibody after a reactive screen.
Can 86850 be reported with ABO and Rh typing?
Yes. In a type-and-screen workup, the antibody screen is distinct from ABO typing (86900) and Rh typing (86901).
Are units based on the number of antibodies found?
No. Report one service for each serum technique performed, not for each antibody the screen detects.
How does Medicare pay for 86850?
Medicare pays the test through the CLFS at one national amount, with the same payment across localities and office and facility settings.
Is a physician interpretation billed under the physician fee schedule?
Medicare classifies 86850 as a CLFS-only test, rather than a physician-fee-schedule service.
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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