CPT code 87081: Culture screen, screening only2026 Medicare lab fee · Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule
Culture-based screening for pathogenic organisms with presumptive reporting, used when the laboratory service is limited to screening rather than broader culture work.
Medicare pays $6.63 for 87081 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
$6.63
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 87081 covers
Code 87081 reports culture-based screening for pathogenic organisms, with a presumptive result. It represents screening work rather than a culture service reported for organism recovery and identification. A clinical microbiology laboratory reports this code when the service performed is a pathogenic-organism screen. Selection turns on the screening nature of the culture service, not on an assumed specimen or body site. The screening designation describes the laboratory service reported, not a claim that a particular organism was recovered.
Report 87081 for the screening culture performed. Medicare pays 87081 through the CLFS at one national amount per code, with no locality or office-versus-facility adjustment; the 2026 amount is $6.63 and has remained at that level since 2020. The test is paid only under the CLFS and is excluded from the physician fee schedule 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 87081
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 87081. 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 87081 with status X (excluded by statute), so the test itself is paid only from the CLFS.
87081 on the lab fee schedule since 2020
87081 · CLFS 2026 Q4 (current)
$6.63
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.
87081 compared with similar tests
- 87070Aerobic cultureNon-urine, blood, or stool$8.62
- 87081 is for screening-only culture work. Code 87070 describes aerobic culture of another specimen when that is the service performed.
- 87040Blood cultureBacterial culture$10.32
- 87040 is for bacterial blood culture. Code 87081 describes screening culture work, not a blood culture.
- 87086Urine cultureQuantitative colony count$8.07
- 87086 is for urine culture with colony count. Use it when that urine-specific service is performed rather than a general pathogen screen.
- 87088Urine cultureIsolate identification$8.09
- 87088 describes urine bacterial culture. Code 87081 describes screening-only culture work rather than a urine-specific culture.
87081 billing questions
What service does 87081 represent?
It represents culture-based screening for pathogenic organisms with a presumptive result. The code is for the screening service.
When should a lab report 87081 instead of 87070?
Report 87081 for screening-only culture work. Code 87070 describes an aerobic culture of another specimen when that is the service performed.
Does 87081 represent full organism identification?
No. It represents presumptive screening, rather than a culture service reported for organism recovery and identification.
Does Medicare adjust 87081 payment by locality or setting?
No. Medicare pays one national CLFS amount per code, without locality or office-versus-facility adjustment.
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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