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Describe a service in plain words, or type a CPT/HCPCS code.

CPT 85025 Medicare lab fee

Blood Cell Count With Differential

Priced under CLFS

85025 · CLFS Q4 2026

National CLFS allowed amount · Q4 2026

$7.77

National lab fee-schedule amount, before sequestration. No locality adjustment applies to this amount.

No Physician Fee Schedule amount—priced under the Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule.

View CLFS amount and evidence

Amount evidence: Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule

Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (Q4 2026) · 26clabq4.zip (PUF_CLFS_CY2026_Q4V1.csv row 1,535)

Effective Jan 1, 2026 · Lab payment rules and source details

Inspect PFS status evidence
Code
85025
Release
Q4 2026, revision 2
Result
Priced under CLFS

Citations

  • Shows this code’s PFS status (X). Result: Priced under CLFS.

    Physician relative value file (PPRRVU)CMS RVU26DOctober 1 – December 31, 2026revision 2

    This PFS record alone does not establish a $0 allowance or a coverage determination. Any amount from another schedule needs its own evidence.

    PPRRVU2026_Oct_nonQPP.csv row 10,484 in rvu26d-updated-08-26-2026.zip

    In the CMS file

    Loading rows 10,482–10,486 of PPRRVU2026_Oct_nonQPP.csv…

    Download rvu26d-updated-08-26-2026.zip from CMS File fingerprint 4d0d3f19bd954ffc0f5b8439169d267da023d4f6911f4539bb6e98723cb1a626

Plain-text summaryReport a problem

Commercial 2 commercial payers negotiated rates for 85025: 70–100% of Medicare at the median

The national CLFS allowed amount is $7.77 for CPT 85025 under the Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (CLFS)—a single national rate, the same in every locality, before the ~2% sequestration cut. On the Physician Fee Schedule CPT 85025 carries status X (statutory exclusion) because lab services are paid under the CLFS instead. Figure from the Q4 2026 CLFS file, effective January 1, 2026.

Why is there no national PFS amount for 85025?

Its status indicator is X (statutory exclusion). The statutory definition of physician services does not include this item. The lab schedule supplies the pricing information shown above. See the CLFS evidence.

About this code

Also known as Complete blood count (CBC)

A blood test counting red cells, white cells, and platelets, and sorting the white cells into their main types. It is one of the most widely used screening and monitoring tests. Medicare reported 26.2 million services under this code in CY2024.

Plain-language context only—not the official CPT descriptor and not coding guidance

The Medicare lab fee for 85025 Copy link

Priced under the Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule, not the Physician Fee Schedule

85025 carries status X on the Physician Fee Schedule because Medicare pays for clinical lab tests under a separate fee schedule, the CLFS. Since 2018 the CLFS rate is a single national amount—the same in every state and setting, with no locality adjustment.

Original Medicare generally pays 100% of the CLFS amount for covered clinical diagnostic lab tests—no Part B coinsurance or deductible, unlike most physician services.

National CLFS rate

$7.77

Q4 2026 CLFS file · effective Jan 1, 2026 · same with modifier QW

Before the ~2% sequestration cut applied at claim payment. Lab tests billed by a hospital outpatient department may be packaged into the facility payment instead.

Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (Q4 2026) · 26clabq4.zip (PUF_CLFS_CY2026_Q4V1.csv row 1,535)

This record establishes the published lab amount and its effective date. It does not establish patient-specific coverage or whether a claim is packaged into another payment.

Source fields and checksum
Code
85025
Modifier
Blank
Pricing indicator
N
Allowed amount
$7.77
Effective date
2026-01-01
File SHA-256
fcfec34526c443902747deae74339aae6f8bc79f26b3239cc017c278bf730e0e

Payment considerations Copy link

Here are the inputs and payment rules that apply to this code. Each link takes you to the detail below.

Other payment indicators (7)
Facility/non-facility: Not determined, Professional/technical component: Does not apply, Bilateral adjustment: Does not apply, Multiple-procedure reduction: Does not apply, Assistant/co-surgeon treatment: Does not apply, Global surgery: Does not apply, Contractor pricing: Does not apply.
Why would a Medicare claim for 85025 be denied or paid less?

These come from CMS indicators on this page, not general billing advice.

  • Its status indicator is X (statutory exclusion)—The statutory definition of physician services does not include this item. Medicare prices this code under the Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule instead; the CLFS rate is shown on this page. See CLFS rate
  • 8 codes form NCCI pairs with 85025 carrying modifier indicator 0—no NCCI-associated modifier bypasses the edit, so billed together on the same date of service, a line of the pair denies. See billing together
  • 9 codes pair with 85025 under modifier indicator 1—separately payable only when an NCCI-associated modifier (59, or a more specific XE, XS, XP, or XU) is clinically appropriate and the documentation supports a distinct service; without one, a line of the pair denies. See billing together
  • More than 2 units per patient per date of service exceeds 85025's Medically Unlikely Edit (MUE) limit. See billing together

Payer-specific coverage and documentation rules live outside these files, so a claim that clears every check here can still be denied on other grounds.

Which billing rules and modifiers apply? Copy link

Global period: what 85025's fee already covers Copy link

XXX Does not apply

The global surgery concept does not apply to this code.

Can you bill it with another code? Copy link

Check a pair of codes Copy link

Enter a second CPT or HCPCS code billed on the same date of service. We'll check the current NCCI procedure-to-procedure edit for the pair.

See every current NCCI pair for 85025 →

Billing together (NCCI edits) Copy link

NCCI Q4 2026

Based on CMS's National Correct Coding Initiative (NCCI). A few examples appear here; use the complete edit page to check a specific pair.

Not separately payable with 85025 on the same date of service—no modifier bypasses the edit (modifier indicator 0)

85004 85004 denies
85007 85007 denies
85008 85008 denies

Showing 3 of 8.

Separately payable with 85025 only when an NCCI-associated modifier is appropriate and documented (modifier indicator 1)

80081 85025 denies
85013 85013 denies
85014 85014 denies

Showing 3 of 9.

Modifier 59 and the X modifiers are not a universal bypass—CMS expects the most specific applicable modifier, and which one that is depends on the pair and the documented circumstances.

Check a paired code or view all 17 NCCI pairs →

Medically Unlikely Edit (MUE) limit: 2 units per patient per date of service.

Payment review for 85025 Copy link

A blood count, a related blood-count method, and the specimen collection are separate services. Check the lab fee source, repeat-test rules, and any reflex testing before deciding two amounts are inconsistent.

What to check

  • Compare 85025 with nearby lab codes by the method actually performed, not by the shared “CBC” shorthand.
  • Use the current CLFS amount, and don’t read an unpriced PFS line as a zero-dollar allowance.
  • Treat a repeat or manual follow-up as separately payable only when the service performed and the applicable edits support it.

Compare against 85027, 85004 and 36415: their amounts are in Related codes.

Sources: CMS Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule; CMS Medicare NCCI Policy Manual (2026); CMS Medicare Claims Processing Manual (Pub. 100-04).

How has it changed? Copy link

Rate history by release Copy link

National Office (non-facility) amount for 85025 across quarterly releases.

Release Status Office Facility
Q4 2026 Oct 1, 2026 – present X — —
Q3 2026 Jul 1, 2026 – Sep 30, 2026 X — —
Q2 2026 Apr 1, 2026 – Jun 30, 2026 X — —
When does this rate change?

CMS publishes a fee schedule release every quarter (January, April, July, October), and each is versioned here. See what changed each release, or get an email when a new release moves rates.

Sources: CMS Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Relative Value Files.

What do commercial payers pay? Copy link

Negotiated rates for 85025 vs Medicare Copy link

Commercial payers' negotiated rates for 85025 have medians of 70% to 100% of Medicare, depending on specialty.

Insurers must publish the rates they negotiate with in-network clinicians (the Transparency in Coverage rule). We reduce each file to medians by county and specialty and set them against Medicare's amount for the same place.

BCBSIL PPO · Cook County, IL

Rate file of October 2026

Medicare (100%): $7.77, the CLFS Q4 2026 national lab limit in this county's payment locality.

  • NP/PA

    7,506 providers · 1,741 groups

    85% 85–100%

    Median $6.60 · middle half $6.60–$7.77 · 62% of providers at exactly $6.60

  • Internal Medicine

    2,959 providers · 1,068 groups

    100% 100–103%

    Median $7.77 · middle half $7.77–$8.04 · 67% of providers at exactly $7.77

Median negotiated rate Middle half of providers Medicare Every code in this file →

BCBSTX Blue Choice PPO · Harris County, TX

Rate file of October 2026

Medicare (100%): $7.77, the CLFS Q4 2026 national lab limit in this county's payment locality.

  • NP/PA

    7,035 providers · 1,769 groups

    70%

    Median $5.44 · 98% of providers at exactly $5.44

Median negotiated rate Middle half of providers Medicare Every code in this file →

Payers publish this data, and each dataset carries its month. A negotiated rate describes the contract, not the payment, and networks and plan designs vary. We publish a benchmark only when at least 10 providers from at least 5 separately contracting groups (tax IDs) stand behind it, and no single group accounts for more than 25% of it. Browse all payer benchmarks →

Usage and related codes Copy link

How often 85025 is billed Copy link

Across Original Medicare in CY2024, 85025 ranked #7 of the 7,879 CPT codes billed to Medicare that year, by patients served or total allowed dollars. It repeats: a patient billed for it in 2024 was billed 2.2 times on average that year.

Beneficiaries
11.9M
Office + facility beneficiaries combined
Services
26.2M
Times it was billed
Allowed
$199.0M
Total Medicare allowed dollars
Compare: ↑ #6 more popular · 99232 ↓ #8 less popular · 99215

2024 Medicare fee-for-service national totals. They exclude Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and commercial volume, so real-world use runs higher. This is a calendar-year snapshot from the CMS Physician & Other Practitioners dataset, on a different cycle from the Q4 2026 fee schedule above.

Who bills 85025 to Medicare

Observed CY2024 Medicare fee-for-service billing, by the rendering clinician's CMS specialty. Each share is that specialty's slice of all observed services for this code that year.

Hematology/Oncology
38%
Family Medicine
19%
Internal Medicine
18%
NP/PA
11%
Pathology
5%

Setting split that year: 100% Office (non-facility) · 0% facility. CMS publishes only this facility vs non-facility split, never the exact place of service. The Office (non-facility) figure does not identify urgent care or any other specific setting.

CY2024 Medicare fee-for-service only, from the CMS Physician & Other Practitioners dataset, which suppresses rows under 11 beneficiaries. We omit specialty groups with fewer than 30 observed clinicians, so the shares can fall short of 100%. Specialty and practice-type pages linked elsewhere on this page are curated code lists, not utilization claims.

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Source & method

Show sources

The lab amount comes from the Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule record shown above. Its release and effective date are independent of the PFS release used for status evidence. Past releases are never edited, so these sources stay valid after CMS publishes a newer one. The commercial rates above are the only figures on this page that CMS did not publish. Payers published them in their own Transparency in Coverage files. Our methodology explains sourcing, parsing, versioning, and how we cross-check claims before we publish them.

Localis context written from primary sources: CMS Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Relative Value Files. Not derived from AMA CPT descriptor text.

Cite this rate

The citation names the release, so anyone can check it even after CMS publishes a newer one.

CPT 85025: $7.77 (CLFS Q4 2026; effective 2026-01-01). PUF_CLFS_CY2026_Q4V1.csv, row 1535. Localis. https://localishealth.com/sources/clinical-lab-fee-schedule/2026/D