CPT code 87147: Culture typing, immunologic method2026 Medicare lab fee · Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule
Reports immunologic typing of a cultured organism using an antiserum, such as serologic grouping by agglutination rather than immunofluorescence.
Medicare pays $5.18 for 87147 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
$5.18
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 87147 covers
A microbiology laboratory uses an immunologic reaction, such as agglutination with specific antiserum, to assign a type or group to an organism recovered in culture. This is typing of a cultured isolate, not the initial culture itself or a general organism-identification test. The method is distinct from immunofluorescence-based typing. The result can help characterize an isolate for clinical or epidemiologic purposes.
Report the service per antiserum used for typing. Medicare pays this test through the CLFS, with one national amount applying across states and localities and no office or facility payment difference. The 2026 national CLFS amount is $5.18, unchanged since 2020. The code is excluded from the physician fee schedule and is paid only through the CLFS.
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 87147
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 87147. 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 87147 with status X (excluded by statute), so the test itself is paid only from the CLFS.
87147 on the lab fee schedule since 2020
87147 · CLFS 2026 Q4 (current)
$5.18
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.
87147 compared with similar tests
- 87140Culture typingImmunofluorescent method$5.57
- Choose 87147 for immunologic typing other than immunofluorescence, including agglutination grouping. Choose 87140 when immunofluorescence is the typing method.
- 87143Culture typingGas or liquid chromatography$12.52
- 87143 describes culture typing by a chromatographic method; 87147 describes typing by an immunologic method other than immunofluorescence.
- 87152Organism typingPulse-field gel method$7.74
- 87152 is for culture typing by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Use 87147 for the specified immunologic approach instead.
87147 billing questions
When should I report 87147?
Use it when a cultured organism is typed by an immunologic method other than immunofluorescence, such as agglutination grouping with antiserum.
How is the unit determined?
The service is reported per antiserum used for the immunologic typing.
How does 87147 differ from 87140?
87147 describes immunologic typing by a method other than immunofluorescence. 87140 is the corresponding culture-typing code for an immunofluorescence method.
Is the culture itself included in 87147?
87147 represents typing of an organism recovered in culture. It does not describe the initial culture.
How does Medicare pay 87147?
Medicare pays it only under the CLFS, at one national amount across localities, with no office or 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
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