How much does Medicare pay for CPT 88161?

Medicare allowed an average of $29.50 per service and paid $23.05 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $100.27, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 88161?

Screening examination of specimen cells, preparation, screening and interpretation. It was billed 3,264 times to 2,965 Medicare beneficiaries by 80 providers in 2024.

Does 88161 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $47.93 in an office setting and $23.51 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 88161 most?

Pathology, with 2,658 services from 71 clinicians. Next are Clinical Laboratory, Internal Medicine, Hematology-Oncology.

CPT 88161

Screening examination of specimen cells, preparation, screening and interpretation

$29.50Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 3,264 services

Providers submitted

$100.27

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$29.50

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$23.05

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $100.27 for this code and Medicare allowed $29.50 — 3.4× 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 $23.05 (78%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $47.93
Hospital / facility: $23.51

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. 801 services were billed in an office setting and 2,463 in a facility.

Services: 3,264
Beneficiaries: 2,965
Providers billing it: 80
Total allowed: $96,288

What Medicare pays for CPT 88161

Across 3,264 services billed by 80 providers to 2,965 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $29.50 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 88161

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Pathology	2,658	2,391	$23.75	71
Clinical Laboratory	339	321	$66.17	5
Internal Medicine	99	98	$26.05	1
Hematology-Oncology	93	81	$68.21	2
Infectious Disease	75	74	$24.27	1

88161 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
Florida	878	$24.37	$19.49	25
North Carolina	396	$33.48	$28.01	6
California	301	$33.14	$23.61	5
Texas	250	$23.18	$18.98	7
Arkansas	211	$58.41	$47.50	2
Pennsylvania	206	$23.52	$19.04	3
District of Columbia	151	$26.20	$18.99	1
New Jersey	150	$35.94	$25.16	3
Illinois	142	$23.31	$19.01	4
Wisconsin	134	$22.71	$18.85	1
Louisiana	62	$23.26	$19.10	4
Kansas	61	$23.50	$19.05	4
Maryland	58	$24.81	$18.98	2
Alabama	52	$71.35	$61.56	1
Indiana	41	$23.14	$19.02	2
Massachusetts	28	$23.75	$18.96	1
New York	27	$24.10	$18.99	2
Nebraska	24	$23.08	$19.05	1
Georgia	23	$23.13	$18.95	2
Minnesota	22	$23.77	$16.39	1
Missouri	21	$23.75	$18.96	1
Mississippi	15	$22.97	$19.05	1
South Carolina	11	$23.02	$19.02	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.