How much does Medicare pay for CPT 88187?

Medicare allowed an average of $34.51 per service and paid $26.75 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $277.09, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 88187?

Flow cytometry technique for dna or cell analysis, 2 to 8 markers. It was billed 20,117 times to 17,981 Medicare beneficiaries by 411 providers in 2024.

Does 88187 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $35.08 in an office setting and $34.20 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 88187 most?

Pathology, with 14,767 services from 359 clinicians. Next are Clinical Laboratory, Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, Family Practice.

CPT 88187

Flow cytometry technique for dna or cell analysis, 2 to 8 markers

$34.51Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 20,117 services

Providers submitted

$277.09

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$34.51

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$26.75

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $277.09 for this code and Medicare allowed $34.51 — 8.0× 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 $26.75 (78%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $35.08
Hospital / facility: $34.20

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. 7,190 services were billed in an office setting and 12,927 in a facility.

Services: 20,117
Beneficiaries: 17,981
Providers billing it: 411
Total allowed: $694,238

What Medicare pays for CPT 88187

Across 20,117 services billed by 411 providers to 17,981 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $34.51 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 88187

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Pathology	14,767	13,358	$34.27	359
Clinical Laboratory	4,897	4,377	$35.21	43
Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy	160	72	$33.12	1
Family Practice	104	53	$36.94	2
Internal Medicine	79	30	$36.87	2
Hematology	41	40	$31.17	1
General Surgery	28	14	$37.62	1
Hematology-Oncology	22	20	$34.10	1
Pediatric Medicine	19	17	$33.39	1

88187 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
Minnesota	3,121	$34.62	$26.81	32
Texas	1,923	$34.73	$26.72	46
Arkansas	1,646	$32.29	$27.24	11
Florida	1,552	$34.57	$26.53	32
California	1,319	$36.44	$25.93	24
New York	1,265	$36.74	$26.18	21
Tennessee	837	$32.18	$26.62	12
Massachusetts	757	$36.53	$26.48	16
Virginia	666	$37.20	$27.10	5
Michigan	662	$33.92	$26.53	26
Alabama	621	$33.11	$25.81	14
New Jersey	575	$36.66	$26.46	8
Pennsylvania	559	$34.26	$26.69	17
North Carolina	524	$32.67	$26.61	20
Kansas	452	$32.67	$26.57	8
Wisconsin	439	$33.18	$26.17	18
Washington	391	$35.40	$27.03	15
Connecticut	369	$35.77	$26.03	9
Iowa	334	$33.29	$26.12	8
Missouri	255	$33.95	$26.57	7
Arizona	254	$34.44	$26.48	8
Oklahoma	249	$32.83	$27.03	4
Indiana	240	$33.06	$26.27	5
Ohio	189	$33.16	$26.76	9
Nebraska	170	$32.80	$26.51	4
Maryland	135	$34.85	$25.98	6
New Hampshire	113	$34.47	$25.36	2
West Virginia	112	$33.65	$23.78	5
South Dakota	86	$33.19	$26.88	3
Illinois	71	$34.60	$26.44	4
Georgia	37	$34.10	$27.53	1
Puerto Rico	31	$34.33	$27.31	1
North Dakota	30	$33.86	$27.25	2
Utah	20	$33.92	$27.29	1
Montana	17	$34.24	$27.30	1
New Mexico	17	$30.30	$27.04	1
Kentucky	17	$33.11	$27.24	1
Hawaii	17	$34.59	$27.32	1
Maine	16	$34.90	$27.18	1
South Carolina	16	$35.03	$25.47	1
Vermont	13	$34.61	$27.40	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.