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95857 Cholinesterase challenge

What 95857 is

CMS fee schedule short descriptor: Cholinesterase challenge.

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 95857 (CY2026)

Work RVUPractice expense RVUMalpractice RVUTotalMedicare rate
Non-facility (office)0.521.460.042.02$67.47
Facility (hospital, ASC)0.520.150.040.71$23.71

National rates: total RVUs x the CY2026 conversion factor of 33.4009 (non-QP), before geographic adjustment. Actual Medicare payment is 80% of the rate shown after the deductible; the patient or secondary payer owes the 20% coinsurance.


Status: Active - payable under the Physician Fee Schedule. Global period: Global concept does not apply.

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Medically Unlikely Edit (MUE)

Medicare caps 95857 at 1 unit per date of service for practitioner claims (MAI 2 - date of service edit (absolute): units above the MUE never pay), rationale: Code Descriptor / CPT Instruction. Units above the cap are denied unless the edit's adjudication rules allow an appeal with documentation.

Billed with 95857? These codes are bundled into it

95857 is a Column 1 code in 14 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 codeShort descriptionModifier indicator
0708TId ca immntx prep & 1st njx1 - modifier may bypassCheck pair
0709TId ca immntx each addl njx1 - modifier may bypassCheck pair
36000Place needle in vein1 - modifier may bypassCheck pair
36410Vnpnxr 3yr/> phy/qhp dx/ther1 - modifier may bypassCheck pair
36591Draw blood off venous device0 - no modifier bypassCheck pair
36592Collect blood from picc0 - no modifier bypassCheck pair
96360Hydration iv infusion init1 - modifier may bypassCheck pair
96365Ther/proph/diag iv inf init1 - modifier may bypassCheck pair
96372Ther/proph/diag inj sc/im1 - modifier may bypassCheck pair
96374Ther/proph/diag inj iv push1 - modifier may bypassCheck pair
96375Tx/pro/dx inj new drug addon1 - modifier may bypassCheck pair
96376Tx/pro/dx inj same drug adon1 - modifier may bypassCheck pair
96377Applicaton on-body injector1 - modifier may bypassCheck pair
96523Irrig drug delivery device0 - no modifier bypassCheck 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.