How much does Medicare pay for CPT 88141?

Medicare allowed an average of $24.26 per service and paid $16.76 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $77.62, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 88141?

Pap test. It was billed 29,473 times to 28,336 Medicare beneficiaries by 720 providers in 2024.

Does 88141 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $24.35 in an office setting and $24.02 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 88141 most?

Pathology, with 15,941 services from 577 clinicians. Next are Clinical Laboratory, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Diagnostic Radiology.

CPT 88141

Pap test

$24.26Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 29,473 services

Providers submitted

$77.62

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$24.26

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$16.76

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $77.62 for this code and Medicare allowed $24.26 — 3.2× 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 $16.76 (69%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $24.35
Hospital / facility: $24.02

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. 21,014 services were billed in an office setting and 8,459 in a facility.

Services: 29,473
Beneficiaries: 28,336
Providers billing it: 720
Total allowed: $715,015

What Medicare pays for CPT 88141

Across 29,473 services billed by 720 providers to 28,336 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $24.26 per service. 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 88141

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Pathology	15,941	15,651	$24.27	577
Clinical Laboratory	12,586	11,743	$23.95	128
Obstetrics & Gynecology	897	893	$28.16	13
Diagnostic Radiology	49	49	$24.52	2

88141 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
California	3,857	$27.68	$16.02	83
New York	3,227	$26.39	$16.79	79
Texas	3,067	$23.48	$15.99	39
Florida	2,269	$23.05	$16.85	26
Pennsylvania	1,579	$24.11	$16.80	41
North Carolina	1,566	$22.37	$16.21	19
New Jersey	1,405	$26.10	$16.20	13
Tennessee	873	$21.91	$15.58	23
Massachusetts	861	$25.70	$16.91	39
Illinois	696	$24.05	$15.93	22
South Carolina	622	$21.98	$17.20	15
Michigan	617	$23.11	$16.29	28
Ohio	539	$22.30	$16.29	31
Indiana	538	$22.48	$16.42	19
Connecticut	503	$25.52	$16.25	23
West Virginia	495	$21.72	$15.95	8
Alabama	472	$21.38	$16.72	8
Georgia	470	$23.72	$16.82	12
Wisconsin	423	$22.62	$16.61	21
Louisiana	421	$21.77	$16.57	7
Virginia	396	$23.93	$16.78	16
Mississippi	380	$21.46	$16.46	10
Oklahoma	350	$21.91	$16.02	10
Puerto Rico	348	$23.32	$15.12	6
Iowa	318	$22.29	$15.65	10
Missouri	311	$23.40	$17.00	11
Colorado	304	$24.04	$15.58	8
Arizona	301	$23.02	$16.05	5
Vermont	235	$23.30	$15.51	7
Maryland	229	$24.35	$16.89	8
Kansas	220	$23.53	$16.17	9
Arkansas	214	$21.50	$16.50	5
Kentucky	206	$21.60	$16.90	5
Washington	157	$26.93	$16.65	9
Nebraska	150	$22.16	$14.63	6
New Hampshire	120	$24.79	$15.94	3
Oregon	115	$24.11	$15.87	5
Hawaii	104	$25.76	$17.94	5
Minnesota	92	$23.76	$15.30	7
Rhode Island	81	$24.38	$14.49	4
Nevada	75	$23.49	$17.50	1
Maine	74	$23.56	$13.24	3
North Dakota	54	$23.30	$15.07	3
New Mexico	46	$21.77	$16.40	2
Idaho	29	$22.05	$16.99	2
South Dakota	21	$23.40	$13.42	1
Montana	19	$20.74	$15.28	1
Delaware	12	$24.18	$15.61	1
Utah	12	$22.48	$15.74	1

Related codes

88185Flow cytometry technique for dna or cell analysis$24.39
88112Cell examination of specimen$38.46
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
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.