How much does Medicare pay for CPT 88188?

Medicare allowed an average of $60.36 per service and paid $47.04 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $388.53, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 88188?

Flow cytometry technique for dna or cell analysis, 9 to 15 markers. It was billed 40,463 times to 37,084 Medicare beneficiaries by 804 providers in 2024.

Does 88188 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $60.21 in an office setting and $60.38 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 88188 most?

Pathology, with 35,932 services from 761 clinicians. Next are Clinical Laboratory, Hematology, Hematology-Oncology.

CPT 88188

Flow cytometry technique for dna or cell analysis, 9 to 15 markers

$60.36Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 40,463 services

Providers submitted

$388.53

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$60.36

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$47.04

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $388.53 for this code and Medicare allowed $60.36 — 6.4× 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 $47.04 (78%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $60.21
Hospital / facility: $60.38

The facility rate is higher for this code, which is unusual and generally means the service depends on equipment or staffing a hospital carries. 5,260 services were billed in an office setting and 35,203 in a facility.

Services: 40,463
Beneficiaries: 37,084
Providers billing it: 804
Total allowed: $2,442,347

What Medicare pays for CPT 88188

Across 40,463 services billed by 804 providers to 37,084 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $60.36 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 88188

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Pathology	35,932	32,977	$60.34	761
Clinical Laboratory	4,234	3,845	$60.37	38
Hematology	168	143	$64.93	3
Hematology-Oncology	116	107	$58.63	1
Pediatric Medicine	13	12	$56.88	1

88188 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	3,920	$64.50	$46.48	72
Texas	3,040	$59.87	$45.00	60
California	2,996	$65.27	$46.43	58
Pennsylvania	2,740	$60.54	$46.26	33
Florida	2,188	$59.60	$46.51	45
Minnesota	2,112	$58.82	$46.24	40
Michigan	1,665	$59.38	$46.17	49
Massachusetts	1,584	$63.18	$46.02	33
Illinois	1,444	$62.04	$46.03	32
Ohio	1,066	$57.41	$46.36	24
Georgia	1,057	$59.23	$45.93	21
Kansas	1,046	$56.54	$45.86	13
Oklahoma	934	$57.01	$46.84	11
Connecticut	931	$62.16	$44.72	13
Virginia	915	$58.96	$46.43	26
Iowa	900	$57.00	$45.31	14
South Carolina	897	$57.75	$45.71	14
Washington	876	$64.55	$46.30	21
Missouri	859	$58.46	$45.08	18
Wisconsin	858	$57.62	$45.19	22
North Carolina	828	$57.41	$46.59	20
Colorado	782	$60.12	$46.76	12
New Jersey	716	$64.01	$46.52	9
Indiana	680	$56.79	$46.05	9
Tennessee	617	$56.14	$45.81	16
Maryland	610	$62.09	$46.09	16
West Virginia	456	$58.71	$43.43	5
Alabama	441	$56.70	$45.15	9
New Hampshire	417	$58.77	$44.69	2
North Dakota	357	$58.14	$46.38	7
Vermont	321	$58.33	$45.84	7
Arkansas	310	$55.72	$46.87	13
Kentucky	300	$57.25	$46.82	10
Maine	227	$58.80	$46.36	7
Nebraska	208	$56.21	$46.57	4
Oregon	172	$61.25	$46.68	9
New Mexico	165	$58.28	$45.95	5
Rhode Island	148	$61.04	$45.79	4
South Dakota	140	$58.05	$47.22	3
Arizona	130	$57.76	$47.08	5
Utah	109	$56.97	$46.73	6
District of Columbia	94	$61.89	$45.57	1
Mississippi	66	$55.31	$47.26	2
Montana	55	$59.05	$47.09	1
Idaho	37	$57.34	$45.89	1
Delaware	27	$57.75	$47.24	1
Hawaii	22	$64.19	$44.88	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
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.