Medicare Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (CLFS) 2024One national amount for every lab test

What Medicare pays for each clinical lab test in 2024, from CMS’s quarterly Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule file: the most-billed tests, every code with its amount, and what changed this quarter.

CMS CLFS 2024 Q4Effective Oct 1, 20241,824 national amounts · 129 contractor-pricedCMS file

On this page 6 sections
  1. How lab tests are paid
  2. Most-billed tests
  3. Find any lab test
  4. This quarter’s changes
  5. Related schedules
  6. Sources

This is the lab fee schedule as of CLFS 2024 Q4, the last 2024 release. Code pages show today’s amounts; see the current lab fee schedule.

How Medicare pays lab tests

Clinical lab tests aren’t built from relative value units like physician services. CMS publishes one Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule amount per test, the most Medicare pays for it anywhere in the country, and updates the file every quarter.

1,824lab codes with a national amount
129priced by each Medicare contractor

No locality or setting split

There’s no geographic (GPCI) adjustment and no office or facility rate: a test pays the same amount in every state, whoever performs it.

The lesser of charge and amount

Medicare pays the lower of the lab’s charge and the CLFS amount. Patients usually owe no Part B deductible or coinsurance for covered lab tests.

Quarterly releases

Amounts are reset each January. New tests join during the year, many of them proprietary laboratory analyses (PLA codes ending in U).

Contractor-priced tests

Codes with indicator L have no national amount. Each Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) prices them for its jurisdiction.

Most-billed lab tests

The 25 lab tests Medicare paid most often in 2024, with their 2024 national amount. Select a code for its amount history and billing rules.

Most-billed Medicare lab tests and their 2024 CLFS amounts
TestNational amount2024 services
36415VenipunctureRoutine venous sample$8.8340.3M
80053Metabolic panelFourteen blood chemistry tests$10.5627.2M
85025Complete CBCAutomated differential$7.7726.2M
80061Lipid panelCholesterol and triglycerides$13.3917.3M
83036A1c testLaboratory assay$9.7114.6M
84443TSH testThyroid-stimulating hormone$16.8013.9M
87798Infectious agent testAmplified probe, each organism$35.0912.7M
82306Vitamin D test25-hydroxy level$29.606.4M
81001UrinalysisAutomated with microscopy$3.176.4M
81003UrinalysisAutomated, without microscopy$2.255.7M
82570Urine creatinineUrine specimen$5.185.5M
84439Free T4Unbound thyroxine$9.025.5M
80048Basic metabolic panelTotal calcium$8.465.1M
82607Vitamin B12Level assay$15.084.7M
82043Urine albuminQuantitative measurement$5.784.5M
87086Urine cultureQuantitative colony count$8.074.4M
83540Iron assaySerum iron concentration$6.473.6M
83735Magnesium$6.703.5M
82728FerritinBlood ferritin level$13.633.5M
85027Complete CBCWithout automated differential$6.473.3M
84153Total PSA$18.393.3M
85610Prothrombin timeRoutine coagulation test$4.293.3M
87481Candida DNA testAmplified probe$35.092.9M
83550Iron bindingBinding capacity$8.742.9M
87186Susceptibility testMicrodilution or agar dilution$8.652.7M

Ranked by 2024 Medicare Part B services, office and facility combined, among tests with a national amount. Every code by volume

Find any lab test

Every lab code on CLFS 2024 Q4: CPT lab codes first, then multianalyte (M), proprietary (U) and HCPCS codes.

What changed in CLFS 2024 Q4

Compared with CLFS 2024 Q3 (effective Jul 1, 2024): 46 codes added, 1 with a new amount and 2 removed.

Added 46

Lab codes added in CLFS 2024 Q4
TestCLFS 2024 Q4 amount
0020MCNS tumor assay30,000-locus DNA arraySet by MAC
0476UPsychiatric PGx14 genes, CYP2D6 copy numberSet by MAC
0477UPsychiatric pharmacogenomics14 genes plus CYP2D6 copy numberSet by MAC
0478UNSCLC gene testNine-gene DNA/RNA analysisSet by MAC
0479Up-tau217 testPhosphorylated tau 217Set by MAC
0480UCSF pathogen sequencingDNA and RNA metagenomic NGSSet by MAC
0481UCNS tumor sequencingIDH1, IDH2, and TERT promoterSet by MAC
0482UPreeclampsia assaySerum ratio, two-week riskSet by MAC
0483UGonorrhea resistancegyrA S91F mutationSet by MAC
0484UM. genitalium resistanceMacrolide resistance probabilitySet by MAC

Showing 10 of 46.

New amounts 1

Lab codes whose amount changed in CLFS 2024 Q4
TestBeforeNow
0473UTumor sequencingMatched-normal analysisSet by MAC$4,500.00

Largest changes first.

Removed 2

Lab codes removed in CLFS 2024 Q4
TestCLFS 2024 Q3 amount
0167UName pending$7.52
0396UName pendingSet by MAC

Sources

Amounts come straight from the CMS Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule file for the quarter: one row per code with its payment indicator and amount. Contractor-priced tests are labeled, never given a made-up amount. Test names are written by FeeBase; CMS’s code descriptors aren’t reproduced.

CMS CLFS 2024 Q4 · effective Oct 1, 2024 through the day before Jan 1, 2025

Open CMS sourceHow we source rates

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