How much does Medicare pay for CPT 88302?

Medicare allowed an average of $9.30 per service and paid $7.23 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $70.34, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 88302?

Pathology examination of tissue using a microscope. It was billed 25,741 times to 22,439 Medicare beneficiaries by 1,198 providers in 2024.

Does 88302 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $21.73 in an office setting and $6.77 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 88302 most?

Pathology, with 21,341 services from 1,114 clinicians. Next are Clinical Laboratory, Dermatology, General Practice.

CPT 88302

Pathology examination of tissue using a microscope

$9.30Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 25,741 services

Providers submitted

$70.34

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$9.30

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$7.23

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $70.34 for this code and Medicare allowed $9.30 — 7.6× 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 $7.23 (78%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $21.73
Hospital / facility: $6.77

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. 4,355 services were billed in an office setting and 21,386 in a facility.

Services: 25,741
Beneficiaries: 22,439
Providers billing it: 1,198
Total allowed: $239,391

What Medicare pays for CPT 88302

Across 25,741 services billed by 1,198 providers to 22,439 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $9.30 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 88302

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Pathology	21,341	19,389	$7.17	1,114
Clinical Laboratory	2,498	2,171	$14.88	76
Dermatology	1,867	844	$26.19	6
General Practice	19	19	$6.29	1
Diagnostic Radiology	16	16	$6.22	1

88302 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	2,997	$8.36	$5.98	140
Florida	2,340	$8.80	$6.77	107
New York	2,305	$8.98	$6.31	99
Arkansas	1,944	$23.88	$21.95	23
New Jersey	1,507	$7.78	$5.59	68
Texas	1,167	$8.21	$6.45	61
Maryland	1,137	$8.92	$6.36	59
Pennsylvania	1,131	$7.01	$5.37	57
Massachusetts	1,131	$6.90	$5.09	54
Ohio	718	$6.55	$5.15	41
Illinois	575	$7.50	$5.55	30
Tennessee	558	$6.77	$5.42	25
Alabama	534	$11.14	$8.84	22
Virginia	522	$7.27	$5.67	27
North Carolina	517	$6.78	$5.42	30
Arizona	459	$6.43	$5.12	26
Indiana	422	$7.89	$6.42	24
South Carolina	390	$6.37	$5.09	25
Kentucky	376	$6.37	$5.00	22
Iowa	367	$6.79	$5.36	15
Georgia	366	$11.46	$8.34	21
Washington	360	$15.00	$10.27	13
Oklahoma	346	$7.72	$6.24	16
Louisiana	343	$7.25	$5.91	21
Kansas	328	$8.03	$6.75	14
Michigan	322	$6.56	$4.95	20
Missouri	271	$6.53	$5.11	17
District of Columbia	197	$6.99	$5.08	7
Mississippi	189	$6.93	$5.41	11
Nebraska	184	$6.84	$5.68	11
West Virginia	177	$6.35	$4.90	11
New Mexico	167	$6.62	$5.37	6
Minnesota	163	$6.44	$5.00	8
Wisconsin	158	$8.96	$6.92	9
North Dakota	155	$6.49	$5.10	7
Nevada	153	$11.51	$9.40	7
Delaware	128	$12.11	$9.24	7
South Dakota	128	$6.33	$5.00	7
Connecticut	124	$13.80	$10.07	6
Colorado	79	$6.65	$5.14	5
Maine	75	$6.94	$5.01	3
New Hampshire	73	$6.73	$5.20	4
Utah	55	$12.93	$10.26	4
Rhode Island	35	$6.67	$5.21	3
Montana	32	$6.41	$4.55	2
Hawaii	13	$7.01	$4.78	1
Alaska	12	$8.74	$5.20	1
Idaho	11	$6.22	$5.20	1

Related codes

88305Pathology examination of tissue$50.75
88341Special stained specimen slides to examine tissue$40.33
88342Special stained specimen slides to examine tissue$58.61
88313Special stained specimen slides to examine tissue including interpreta$43.56
88312Special stained specimen slides to identify organisms including interp$75.82
88307Pathology examination of tissue$84.93
88304Pathology examination of tissue$21.25
88360Microscopic genetic analysis of tumor$59.67
88311Preparation of tissue for examination by removing any calcium present$12.68
88331Pathology examination of specimen during surgery$72.30
88350Antibody evaluation$59.99
88344Special stained specimen slides to examine tissue$100.56

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.