CPT 80048
Basic metabolic panel
A panel of eight blood tests: kidney function, blood sugar, calcium and electrolytes. It is the smaller sibling of the comprehensive metabolic panel and is ordered constantly in emergency and inpatient care.
Billed to Medicare
$37
What providers submitted, on average, for this code in a hospital setting.
Medicare accepted
$8
What Medicare treated as payable. Not a commercial rate or a cash price.
The gap
4.5x
How many times the accepted amount the billed figure was.
National averages from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2024 data, retrieved 2026-09-14. Medicare fee-for-service, physician and practitioner claims only. The hospital's own charge for the same code is separate and is usually higher. Based on 5,269 services.
Among the 10 lab tests codes on this site with CMS figures, this gap ranks 2 of 10 (median 3.7x). The widest is Urinalysis, automated with microscopy at 5.5x.
Where this line goes wrong
Never alongside 80053
The comprehensive panel includes every test in this one. Both codes on the same sample is a coding error.
Components
Individual tests like glucose (82947) or potassium (84132) billed on top of the panel from the same draw are duplicates.
Check it, then ask
- 1
Ask for the itemized bill and the lab results and match every billed test to a result.
- 2
Check for a panel billed alongside one of its own components, or two overlapping panels on the same draw.
- 3
Count the blood draw (36415) lines; one per visit is the norm.
- 4
If self-pay, ask for the hospital's cash price for each test, or compare with an independent lab's published price.
The full walkthrough for this kind of bill: You got an ER bill.
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People also ask
Why was I charged for a metabolic panel and a glucose test?
If both came from the same blood draw, the glucose is already in the panel and should not be billed again. Ask for it to be removed.
Sources
This page explains a billing code in general terms. It is not a coding, legal or medical opinion about your bill, and the code descriptions are mediloop's own plain-English summaries, not the official CPT descriptors, which are owned by the American Medical Association. Whether a charge was correct depends on the record of your visit and your payer's rules.