87206 Smear fluorescent/acid stai
What 87206 is
CMS fee schedule short descriptor: Smear fluorescent/acid stai.
Full CPT long descriptions are licensed by the American Medical Association and are not published on this site; the short descriptor above is the one CMS prints in its own fee schedule file. See About CPT.
Medicare payment for 87206 (CY2026)
This code has no Physician Fee Schedule rate: Statutory exclusion - not payable under the Physician Fee Schedule. It may be paid under a different fee schedule (clinical laboratory, DMEPOS, anesthesia) or not paid at all - check the relevant CMS schedule.
Medically Unlikely Edit (MUE)
Medicare caps 87206 at 6 units per date of service for practitioner claims (MAI 3 - date of service edit (clinical): units above the MUE may pay with documentation on appeal), rationale: Clinical: Data. Units above the cap are denied unless the edit's adjudication rules allow an appeal with documentation.
Billed with 87206? These codes are bundled into it
87206 is a Column 1 code in 7 active NCCI PTP edits. When one of these Column 2 codes is reported on the same date of service, it is denied as bundled - unless the edit's modifier indicator is 1 and documentation supports a distinct service with an NCCI-associated modifier.
| Column 2 code | Short description | Modifier indicator | |
|---|---|---|---|
80503 | Path clin consltj sf 5-20 | 1 - modifier may bypass | Check pair |
80504 | Path clin consltj mod 21-40 | 1 - modifier may bypass | Check pair |
80505 | Path clin consltj high 41-60 | 1 - modifier may bypass | Check pair |
80506 | Path clin consltj prolng svc | 1 - modifier may bypass | Check pair |
87177 | Ova and parasites smears | 1 - modifier may bypass | Check pair |
88387 | Macroscopic xm dsj&prep tiss | 1 - modifier may bypass | Check pair |
96523 | Irrig drug delivery device | 0 - no modifier bypass | Check pair |
87206 is bundled into these codes
87206 appears as a Column 2 code in 60 active edits. Reported with one of these Column 1 codes on the same date of service, 87206 is the code that denies.
| Column 1 code | Short description | Modifier indicator | |
|---|---|---|---|
0107U | 1 | Check pair | |
0402U | 1 | Check pair | |
0527U | 1 | Check pair | |
87260 | Adenovirus ag if | 1 | Check pair |
87267 | Enterovirus antibody dfa | 1 | Check pair |
87269 | Giardia ag if | 1 | Check pair |
87272 | Cryptosporidium ag if | 1 | Check pair |
87273 | Herpes simplex 2 ag if | 1 | Check pair |
87274 | Herpes simplex 1 ag if | 1 | Check pair |
87275 | Influenza b ag if | 1 | Check pair |
87276 | Influenza a ag if | 1 | Check pair |
87278 | Legion pneumophilia ag if | 1 | Check pair |
87279 | Parainfluenza ag if | 1 | Check pair |
87280 | Respiratory syncytial ag if | 1 | Check pair |
87281 | Pneumocystis carinii ag if | 1 | Check pair |
Data: CMS CY2026 Physician Fee Schedule RVU file (October release, RVU26D) and Medicare NCCI PTP practitioner edits v32.3 (2026 Q4). Verify against the official files before billing or contracting decisions.