How much does Medicare pay for CPT 88112?

Medicare allowed an average of $38.46 per service and paid $29.29 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $185.47, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 88112?

Cell examination of specimen, selective cellular enhancement technique. It was billed 812,667 times to 648,539 Medicare beneficiaries by 4,818 providers in 2024.

Does 88112 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $51.53 in an office setting and $26.59 in a facility. The office rate is generally higher because the practice supplies the room, staff and equipment out of that single payment; in a hospital those are billed separately by the facility.

Which specialty bills 88112 most?

Pathology, with 581,796 services from 4,425 clinicians. Next are Clinical Laboratory, Urology, Diagnostic Radiology.

CPT 88112

Cell examination of specimen, selective cellular enhancement technique

$38.46Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 812,667 services

Providers submitted

$185.47

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$38.46

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$29.29

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $185.47 for this code and Medicare allowed $38.46 — 4.8× less. That gap is normal and means nothing on its own: Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of what is billed, so the submitted figure describes a hospital chargemaster, not a price anyone paid. Of the allowed amount Medicare paid $29.29 (76%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $51.53
Hospital / facility: $26.59

The office rate is higher because the practice supplies the room, staff and equipment out of that payment. In a hospital the facility bills those separately, so the clinician's share is smaller — the total cost to Medicare is usually higher, not lower. 386,662 services were billed in an office setting and 426,005 in a facility.

Services: 812,667
Beneficiaries: 648,539
Providers billing it: 4,818
Total allowed: $31,255,173

What Medicare pays for CPT 88112

Across 812,667 services billed by 4,818 providers to 648,539 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $38.46 per service. That is 1.3 services per beneficiary, so this is a code patients typically receive more than once. The allowed amount is the figure that matters: it is what Medicare and the patient together owe, set by the fee schedule and adjusted for local practice costs. What a provider chose to submit has no bearing on it.

Who bills 88112

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Pathology	581,796	494,365	$35.27	4,425
Clinical Laboratory	212,632	142,213	$47.06	238
Urology	16,133	10,305	$41.10	131
Diagnostic Radiology	748	459	$27.44	5
Pain Management	374	341	$27.77	1
Physician Assistant	235	220	$21.73	3
Obstetrics & Gynecology	125	64	$63.27	2
Nurse Practitioner	121	115	$41.12	5
Internal Medicine	89	82	$38.36	1
Family Practice	89	77	$29.72	1
Emergency Medicine	77	71	$26.96	1
Gastroenterology	65	58	$41.49	1
Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology	62	62	$29.21	1
Anesthesiology	61	51	$26.36	1
Dermatology	41	38	$25.55	1

88112 reimbursement by state

Two different numbers. Allowed is what Medicare actually allowed in that state, which includes the local practice-cost adjustment. Standardized strips that geographic adjustment out of the payment, so it is the column to use when comparing states — a difference there reflects how the code was billed, not what it costs to run a practice locally.

State	Services	Allowed	Standardized pmt	Providers
New York	89,227	$42.32	$28.52	305
California	71,477	$40.41	$27.26	417
Florida	66,381	$38.72	$29.83	311
Pennsylvania	50,157	$43.45	$30.05	257
New Jersey	44,252	$48.96	$32.34	143
Massachusetts	42,212	$37.04	$25.51	198
Tennessee	34,147	$43.27	$35.01	149
Illinois	33,931	$39.91	$30.26	216
Texas	29,178	$36.66	$27.96	263
Ohio	26,089	$28.69	$22.52	240
North Carolina	25,845	$29.61	$23.18	153
Michigan	21,184	$33.38	$25.36	157
Arizona	19,792	$40.21	$31.49	107
Virginia	19,073	$39.12	$29.95	110
Maryland	18,749	$52.07	$36.48	85
Georgia	16,162	$37.53	$28.77	140
Washington	15,262	$33.29	$24.21	115
Oklahoma	14,351	$42.50	$34.76	32
Indiana	13,805	$34.75	$26.78	100
South Carolina	11,449	$33.65	$27.46	64
Missouri	11,253	$34.20	$27.62	84
Wisconsin	11,177	$27.59	$21.54	83
Connecticut	10,280	$39.91	$28.29	73
Colorado	9,680	$41.55	$29.80	82
Minnesota	9,019	$37.49	$28.61	97
Kentucky	8,857	$26.07	$20.88	73
Louisiana	8,486	$28.16	$22.78	91
Iowa	7,296	$29.26	$23.29	61
Utah	6,357	$46.37	$38.92	38
Delaware	6,211	$30.01	$23.90	25
Kansas	5,707	$28.04	$22.33	48
Alabama	5,574	$34.08	$27.90	48
Mississippi	5,217	$27.66	$22.37	42
Nebraska	4,198	$31.56	$25.61	33
Arkansas	4,197	$27.36	$22.41	34
New Hampshire	3,946	$28.54	$21.45	28
Oregon	3,817	$34.63	$26.58	38
West Virginia	3,805	$33.52	$26.30	36
Nevada	3,661	$33.14	$25.49	31
Maine	3,345	$27.10	$20.28	25
District of Columbia	2,488	$33.61	$24.28	17
Montana	2,304	$25.70	$19.99	20
North Dakota	2,101	$26.10	$20.10	19
South Dakota	2,099	$27.04	$20.57	21
New Mexico	2,085	$29.39	$23.37	31
Vermont	1,900	$25.90	$19.13	16
Rhode Island	1,582	$26.60	$20.03	15
Hawaii	1,166	$50.70	$34.69	14
Idaho	1,142	$31.68	$25.99	13
Puerto Rico	454	$56.24	$41.84	8
Alaska	375	$34.94	$24.85	7
Wyoming	78	$24.68	$20.62	2
U.S. Virgin Islands	33	$42.98	$48.87	1
AP	29	$26.57	$20.87	1
ZZ	25	$25.20	$20.83	1

Related codes

88185Flow cytometry technique for dna or cell analysis$24.39
88173Evaluation of fine needle aspirate$83.18
88189Flow cytometry technique for dna or cell analysis$82.33
88108Cell examination of specimen$28.49
88175Pap test, automated thin layer preparation; automated system and manua$25.99
88172Evaluation of fine needle aspirate$36.27
88184Flow cytometry technique for dna or cell analysis$81.32
88120Cell examination of urine$465.04
88188Flow cytometry technique for dna or cell analysis$60.36
88177Pap test, evaluation of fine needle aspirate, immediate, each addition$21.33
88141Pap test$24.26
88121Cell examination of urine$380.49

Billing this code is not the same as earning it

An allowed amount is revenue to a practice, not income to a clinician. It funds staff, premises, equipment and supplies before anyone is paid. What clinicians actually earn is published separately by the Department of Labor, and what industry pays them is published separately again by CMS — this site carries both.

What doctors are paid →·Look up a clinician →·All procedure codes →

Where this comes from. CMS Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners, by Provider and Service, 2024. It covers fee-for-service Original Medicare Part B only — not Medicare Advantage, not Medicaid, and not commercial insurance, which typically pays more for the same code.

How it is averaged. CMS publishes one average per provider per code. Every figure here is re-weighted by the number of services, so a clinician who billed the code 4,000 times counts 4,000 times more than one who billed it twice. CMS also suppresses any provider-code pair with fewer than 11 beneficiaries, so low-volume practice is missing from these totals by design.