How much does Medicare pay for CPT 88189?

Medicare allowed an average of $82.33 per service and paid $64.49 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $400.83, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 88189?

Flow cytometry technique for dna or cell analysis, 16 or more markers. It was billed 259,901 times to 237,358 Medicare beneficiaries by 1,789 providers in 2024.

Does 88189 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $83.00 in an office setting and $81.78 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 88189 most?

Pathology, with 179,258 services from 1,634 clinicians. Next are Clinical Laboratory, Hematology, Allergy/ Immunology.

CPT 88189

Flow cytometry technique for dna or cell analysis, 16 or more markers

$82.33Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 259,901 services

Providers submitted

$400.83

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$82.33

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$64.49

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $400.83 for this code and Medicare allowed $82.33 — 4.9× 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 $64.49 (78%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $83.00
Hospital / facility: $81.78

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. 118,130 services were billed in an office setting and 141,771 in a facility.

Services: 259,901
Beneficiaries: 237,358
Providers billing it: 1,789
Total allowed: $21,397,649

What Medicare pays for CPT 88189

Across 259,901 services billed by 1,789 providers to 237,358 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $82.33 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 88189

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Pathology	179,258	164,329	$81.97	1,634
Clinical Laboratory	77,488	70,451	$83.10	112
Hematology	1,185	976	$86.78	6
Allergy/ Immunology	756	511	$88.30	8
Hematology-Oncology	614	564	$78.97	18
Pediatric Medicine	174	158	$75.46	1
Otolaryngology	173	132	$85.81	1
Medical Oncology	90	81	$79.04	3
General Practice	69	65	$81.75	1
Physician Assistant	42	42	$66.56	2
Internal Medicine	24	23	$78.01	1
General Surgery	14	13	$89.23	1
Nurse Practitioner	14	13	$66.69	1

88189 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
California	42,407	$86.48	$62.55	152
Texas	24,174	$80.33	$62.52	155
Florida	23,151	$81.45	$62.73	136
New York	21,600	$88.12	$62.59	126
New Jersey	19,165	$86.34	$63.16	52
Tennessee	11,076	$76.44	$62.71	50
Arizona	8,449	$78.99	$63.04	48
Connecticut	7,606	$83.62	$61.86	22
Ohio	7,308	$78.06	$62.59	71
Virginia	7,232	$81.54	$63.24	42
Pennsylvania	7,038	$80.73	$62.50	70
North Carolina	6,990	$77.22	$63.13	57
Illinois	6,717	$82.50	$63.04	79
Massachusetts	6,476	$84.90	$61.70	56
Washington	5,730	$83.80	$62.42	43
Georgia	5,713	$79.85	$62.47	34
Michigan	4,076	$81.08	$62.62	55
Missouri	4,010	$79.11	$62.40	45
Maryland	3,222	$84.11	$62.61	37
Alabama	3,172	$77.53	$61.96	23
Wisconsin	3,101	$78.16	$62.77	46
Minnesota	2,922	$79.78	$62.17	50
South Carolina	2,744	$77.37	$62.23	29
Indiana	2,702	$77.36	$63.25	29
Kansas	2,274	$76.99	$62.50	18
Colorado	2,013	$79.00	$63.03	24
Kentucky	1,903	$78.42	$62.45	23
Louisiana	1,800	$77.23	$62.23	18
Iowa	1,489	$78.54	$62.58	24
Oklahoma	1,484	$77.35	$62.17	14
Oregon	1,436	$83.00	$63.24	19
Utah	1,243	$78.63	$61.75	18
Arkansas	1,027	$76.65	$63.43	17
Maine	903	$79.86	$61.92	9
Nevada	836	$79.00	$63.26	11
Hawaii	831	$81.51	$63.57	8
West Virginia	799	$78.66	$61.38	14
District of Columbia	715	$87.13	$63.15	7
Vermont	643	$78.96	$61.22	8
South Dakota	639	$78.22	$62.31	5
Montana	566	$79.49	$62.42	3
Delaware	564	$79.87	$62.38	4
Nebraska	558	$76.62	$62.31	6
Mississippi	426	$76.33	$63.22	7
New Mexico	342	$78.13	$62.30	10
New Hampshire	236	$79.79	$60.41	3
Rhode Island	147	$84.53	$61.79	3
North Dakota	142	$78.97	$62.12	3
Idaho	45	$77.97	$62.45	1
Alaska	34	$107.08	$64.29	3
Puerto Rico	25	$79.37	$58.66	2

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
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.