CPT code 86920: Compatibility test, immediate spin, per unit2026 Medicare rate & RVUs

Medicare allowed amount for participating (non-QP) physicians, before deductible, coinsurance and claim adjustments. Not a patient’s bill or a hospital charge.

What 86920 covers

A transfusion service or blood bank performs this rapid serologic check to assess compatibility between a recipient’s blood and a selected donor blood unit. It is part of pretransfusion testing and helps identify incompatibility, particularly involving ABO blood groups. The code distinguishes the immediate-spin method from crossmatches that use incubation, antiglobulin testing, or electronic methods.

Report one unit for each blood unit tested by the immediate-spin method. This service is distinct from blood typing and antibody testing, which may be performed as part of the same pretransfusion workup and reported separately when appropriate. Medicare assigns status X: the test is not a physician service under the Medicare statute, so the physician fee schedule does not pay it. When Medicare covers it, payment is under another fee schedule or payment system.

This summary was written with AI assistance from CMS physician fee schedule data and checked against the CMS billing rules shown here. Rates on this page come directly from CMS files.

Where 86920 pays more and less

The same RVUs, adjusted for each area’s costs. Open a locality for its calculation, history and nearby areas.

109 of 109 payment localities

86920 rates by state

Office rate range in each state. Select a state to see its payment localities.

How the 86920 rate is calculated

Each of 86920’s three RVUs is multiplied by a geographic index (GPCI) for the payment locality, added up, and multiplied by the conversion factor. Drag the indexes or enter a ZIP to see what moves the rate.

Payment rules and modifiers for 86920

86920 has no global surgery period, no multiple-procedure, bilateral or assistant-at-surgery adjustment, and no professional/technical split. What changes the payment is where the service happens: the place of service on the claim decides whether Medicare pays the office or the facility rate.

86920 compared with similar codes

How to choose

86921Compatibility testIncubation technique

Use 86921 when the compatibility test uses incubation; use 86920 for the immediate-spin method.

86922Antiglobulin crossmatchPer donor unit

Use 86922 for an antiglobulin compatibility test. Code 86920 identifies the immediate-spin method.

86923Electronic crossmatchPer donor unit

Use 86923 for electronic compatibility testing; 86920 is for a serologic immediate-spin check.

86900ABO typingSerologic blood group

Code 86900 reports ABO blood typing, not compatibility testing between a recipient and a selected donor unit.

Codes related to 86920

Related codes aren’t interchangeable: bill the code that matches the service performed.

Where these rates come from

FeeBase calculates base physician payments from CMS work, practice-expense and malpractice RVUs, adjusted by each locality’s geographic indexes and the conversion factor. Services without a published rate are labeled, never given a made-up amount. Amounts are Medicare allowed amounts before claim adjustments: not a patient’s bill or a commercial rate.

CMS RVU26D · effective Oct 1, 2026 through the day before Jan 1, 2027

Open CMS sourceHow we calculate rates