CPT 80053
Comprehensive metabolic panel
A panel of 14 blood tests covering kidney function, liver function, blood sugar, electrolytes and protein. It is one of the most commonly ordered lab tests in the ER and on admission, and it is a single code for all 14 results.
Billed to Medicare
$43
What providers submitted, on average, for this code in a hospital setting.
Medicare accepted
$10
What Medicare treated as payable. Not a commercial rate or a cash price.
The gap
4.2x
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 8,565 services.
Among the 10 lab tests codes on this site with CMS figures, this gap ranks 3 of 10 (median 3.7x). The widest is Urinalysis, automated with microscopy at 5.5x.
Where this line goes wrong
It already contains the basic panel
The basic metabolic panel (80048) is a subset of the comprehensive one. Both on the same draw is double billing that federal coding edits prohibit.
Components billed on top
Glucose, potassium, creatinine and the other components have their own codes. Any of them billed alongside 80053 from the same sample is a duplicate.
Repeated every day
On an admission, a daily panel is common. Check that the number of panels matches the number of days and the results on file.
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.
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People also ask
What is the difference between a comprehensive and a basic metabolic panel?
The comprehensive panel adds liver tests and proteins to the eight tests in the basic panel. If both appear on your bill for one blood draw, one should come off.
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.