CPT code 87071: Aerobic culture, quantitative, nonblood source2026 Medicare lab fee · Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule
Quantitative aerobic culture measures bacterial colony growth and supports presumptive identification for eligible specimens other than urine, blood, or stool.
Medicare pays $9.89 for 87071 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
$9.89
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 87071 covers
This service grows bacteria from a clinical specimen under aerobic conditions, quantifies colony growth, and isolates organisms for presumptive identification. It applies to specimens other than urine, blood, or stool, which have separate culture codes. Clinical laboratories perform the work for clinicians investigating suspected bacterial infection, including quantitative aerobic cultures of wound material or tissue when appropriate.
Report 87071 for a quantitative aerobic culture on an eligible specimen. The service is paid only through the Medicare CLFS, at one national amount per code with no locality or office-versus-facility adjustment. The 2026 national CLFS amount is $9.89, unchanged since 2020. Medicare pays the test through the CLFS rather than the physician fee schedule.
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 87071
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 87071. 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 87071 with status X (excluded by statute), so the test itself is paid only from the CLFS.
87071 on the lab fee schedule since 2020
87071 · CLFS 2026 Q4 (current)
$9.89
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.
87071 compared with similar tests
- 87070Aerobic cultureNon-urine, blood, or stool$8.62
- Both cover aerobic cultures from sources other than urine, blood, or stool. Choose 87071 when the culture is quantitative; 87070 is used when it is not.
- 87040Blood cultureBacterial culture$10.32
- 87040 is for bacterial blood culture. Use 87071 for a quantitative aerobic culture from an eligible nonblood, nonurine, nonstool source.
- 87086Urine cultureQuantitative colony count$8.07
- 87086 is the urine culture and colony-count code. 87071 applies to eligible sources other than urine, blood, or stool.
- 87077Aerobic identificationDefinitive identification, each isolate$8.08
- 87077 is for aerobic isolate identification. Code 87071 describes a quantitative culture that includes isolation and presumptive identification.
87071 billing questions
When should 87071 be selected instead of 87070?
Use 87071 when the aerobic bacterial culture is quantitative. Code 87070 is used for an aerobic culture from an eligible source when the service is not quantitative.
Can 87071 be used for urine, blood, or stool?
No. Use 87086 for urine, 87040 for blood, and 87045 for stool.
How does 87071 differ from aerobic isolate identification?
87071 is a quantitative culture that includes isolation and presumptive identification. Code 87077 is for aerobic isolate identification.
Does Medicare pay 87071 under the physician fee schedule?
No. Medicare pays this test through the CLFS at one national amount per code, without locality or office-versus-facility variation.
What should the record support for reporting 87071?
The record should identify the specimen source and support that a quantitative aerobic bacterial culture was performed. Use a source-specific code for urine, blood, or stool.
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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