How much does Medicare pay for CPT 88185?

Medicare allowed an average of $24.39 per service and paid $19.36 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $110.15, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 88185?

Flow cytometry technique for dna or cell analysis, each additional marker. It was billed 2,005,386 times to 81,197 Medicare beneficiaries by 624 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 88185 most?

Clinical Laboratory, with 1,176,095 services from 103 clinicians. Next are Pathology, Hematology-Oncology, Medical Oncology.

CPT 88185

Flow cytometry technique for dna or cell analysis, each additional marker

$24.39Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 2,005,386 services

Providers submitted

$110.15

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$24.39

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$19.36

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $110.15 for this code and Medicare allowed $24.39 — 4.5× 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 $19.36 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 2,005,386
Beneficiaries: 81,197
Providers billing it: 624
Total allowed: $48,911,365

What Medicare pays for CPT 88185

Across 2,005,386 services billed by 624 providers to 81,197 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $24.39 per service. That is 24.7 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 88185

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Clinical Laboratory	1,176,095	49,009	$24.56	103
Pathology	365,654	15,003	$23.03	108
Hematology-Oncology	304,930	11,767	$24.59	295
Medical Oncology	80,874	2,964	$25.00	72
Internal Medicine	25,752	956	$26.75	15
Allergy/ Immunology	24,043	496	$27.97	7
Hematology	10,263	383	$25.20	9
Hospitalist	7,024	279	$27.86	2
Otolaryngology	5,281	131	$26.91	1
Nurse Practitioner	3,854	137	$23.88	8
Physician Assistant	760	34	$26.21	2
Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy	557	25	$21.01	1
Diagnostic Radiology	299	13	$27.90	1

88185 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 Jersey	299,380	$26.63	$18.43	15
New York	281,752	$27.73	$18.41	97
Florida	255,381	$23.02	$18.44	22
California	251,595	$26.61	$18.36	34
Texas	188,300	$22.06	$18.37	86
Connecticut	135,267	$25.07	$18.41	5
Tennessee	108,294	$18.77	$18.37	30
Virginia	94,110	$24.73	$18.41	68
Arizona	76,799	$21.57	$18.34	18
North Carolina	65,299	$19.83	$18.26	5
Maryland	33,513	$27.72	$18.44	31
Alabama	27,319	$20.00	$18.41	32
Illinois	22,219	$23.28	$18.46	18
Washington	20,876	$24.45	$18.43	20
Minnesota	17,579	$23.63	$18.35	3
Arkansas	17,002	$19.88	$18.37	14
Michigan	11,573	$24.30	$18.43	8
Georgia	10,750	$20.29	$18.32	6
Ohio	9,925	$20.25	$18.34	5
Colorado	9,694	$23.98	$18.39	14
Kansas	7,085	$21.02	$18.47	12
Nebraska	7,020	$21.15	$18.50	15
Oklahoma	6,386	$20.59	$18.45	9
Missouri	6,346	$23.02	$18.42	4
Wisconsin	6,265	$23.03	$18.23	4
South Carolina	5,453	$21.73	$18.38	7
Indiana	5,257	$21.41	$18.32	7
Pennsylvania	5,255	$22.32	$18.43	4
New Mexico	3,367	$21.03	$18.12	1
Oregon	3,051	$21.44	$18.51	3
Utah	2,513	$20.16	$18.46	6
Maine	1,801	$23.46	$18.27	1
Hawaii	1,785	$25.33	$18.32	4
Kentucky	1,179	$20.34	$18.44	2
Louisiana	1,016	$19.98	$18.63	1
Rhode Island	920	$24.61	$18.41	2
Delaware	774	$26.85	$18.61	1
Massachusetts	739	$27.96	$18.53	1
West Virginia	701	$21.00	$18.47	1
South Dakota	515	$23.19	$18.35	2
Iowa	360	$20.75	$18.23	1
Idaho	281	$21.11	$18.53	1
Nevada	276	$24.16	$18.05	1
Montana	226	$21.49	$18.42	1
North Dakota	159	$23.14	$17.57	1
Puerto Rico	29	$23.34	$18.47	1

Related codes

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
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.