How much does Medicare pay for CPT 88142?

Medicare allowed an average of $19.78 per service and paid $19.78 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $80.67, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 88142?

Pap test, manual screening. It was billed 18,240 times to 17,835 Medicare beneficiaries by 179 providers in 2024.

Does 88142 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $19.78 in an office setting and $19.85 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 88142 most?

Clinical Laboratory, with 14,449 services from 113 clinicians. Next are Pathology, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Gastroenterology.

CPT 88142

Pap test, manual screening

$19.78Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 18,240 services

Providers submitted

$80.67

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$19.78

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$19.78

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $80.67 for this code and Medicare allowed $19.78 — 4.1× 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 $19.78 (100%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $19.78
Hospital / facility: $19.85

The facility rate is higher for this code, which is unusual and generally means the service depends on equipment or staffing a hospital carries. 18,226 services were billed in an office setting and 14 in a facility.

Services: 18,240
Beneficiaries: 17,835
Providers billing it: 179
Total allowed: $360,787

What Medicare pays for CPT 88142

Across 18,240 services billed by 179 providers to 17,835 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $19.78 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 88142

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Clinical Laboratory	14,449	14,077	$19.82	113
Pathology	3,167	3,147	$19.72	47
Obstetrics & Gynecology	350	345	$19.32	13
Gastroenterology	100	97	$18.26	1
Family Practice	71	71	$19.57	1
Gynecological Oncology	64	60	$19.85	1
Nurse Practitioner	26	25	$19.85	2
Certified Nurse Midwife	13	13	$19.85	1

88142 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	3,770	$19.82	$19.85	15
California	3,340	$19.84	$19.85	23
Florida	1,654	$19.80	$19.85	12
New Jersey	1,596	$19.69	$19.85	9
Texas	1,393	$19.69	$19.85	27
Puerto Rico	1,245	$19.85	$19.85	10
North Carolina	695	$19.82	$19.85	3
Maryland	669	$19.78	$19.85	6
Tennessee	424	$19.78	$19.85	5
Ohio	344	$19.79	$19.85	5
Minnesota	344	$19.85	$19.85	3
Illinois	276	$19.20	$19.85	7
Alabama	242	$19.85	$19.85	3
Iowa	208	$19.85	$19.85	2
Kansas	162	$19.85	$19.85	3
West Virginia	161	$19.85	$19.85	1
Oregon	160	$19.54	$19.85	4
Arizona	160	$19.73	$19.85	4
Wisconsin	120	$19.52	$19.85	1
Connecticut	114	$19.67	$19.85	3
Nebraska	110	$19.85	$19.85	2
Mississippi	103	$19.85	$19.85	3
South Carolina	97	$19.85	$19.85	3
Hawaii	96	$19.41	$19.85	1
Massachusetts	91	$19.85	$19.85	2
Colorado	88	$19.48	$19.85	3
Virginia	81	$19.85	$19.85	2
Washington	76	$19.85	$19.85	2
Georgia	75	$19.85	$19.85	1
Pennsylvania	71	$19.85	$19.85	3
Wyoming	63	$19.85	$19.85	2
Arkansas	59	$19.85	$19.85	2
Missouri	48	$19.85	$19.85	1
Nevada	29	$19.85	$19.85	2
Oklahoma	26	$19.85	$19.85	1
New Mexico	21	$19.85	$19.85	1
Michigan	17	$19.85	$19.85	1
Utah	12	$19.85	$19.85	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
88141Pap test$24.26

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.