How much does Medicare pay for CPT 88307?

Medicare allowed an average of $84.93 per service and paid $67.28 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $364.30, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 88307?

Pathology examination of tissue using a microscope, moderately high complexity. It was billed 881,889 times to 534,186 Medicare beneficiaries by 8,514 providers in 2024.

Does 88307 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $173.97 in an office setting and $79.07 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 88307 most?

Pathology, with 837,901 services from 8,259 clinicians. Next are Clinical Laboratory, Dermatology, Diagnostic Radiology.

CPT 88307

Pathology examination of tissue using a microscope, moderately high complexity

$84.93Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 881,889 services

Providers submitted

$364.30

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$84.93

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$67.28

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $364.30 for this code and Medicare allowed $84.93 — 4.3× 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 $67.28 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $173.97
Hospital / facility: $79.07

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. 54,440 services were billed in an office setting and 827,449 in a facility.

Services: 881,889
Beneficiaries: 534,186
Providers billing it: 8,514
Total allowed: $74,898,833

What Medicare pays for CPT 88307

Across 881,889 services billed by 8,514 providers to 534,186 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $84.93 per service. That is 1.7 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 88307

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Pathology	837,901	507,421	$81.55	8,259
Clinical Laboratory	37,613	23,397	$147.36	175
Dermatology	3,180	1,206	$206.38	28
Diagnostic Radiology	529	351	$89.99	5
Oral Surgery (Dentist only)	482	404	$219.51	9
Ophthalmology	352	286	$80.82	8
General Practice	352	243	$80.72	2
Dentist	236	138	$110.54	5
Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology	231	130	$131.00	4
Pain Management	171	93	$83.59	1
Maxillofacial Surgery	167	106	$101.21	3
Family Practice	137	62	$76.25	2
Emergency Medicine	132	69	$81.06	1
Hematology-Oncology	103	51	$75.04	1
Gastroenterology	76	64	$188.11	2

88307 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	85,398	$98.36	$70.17	744
Florida	61,636	$84.12	$66.85	494
Texas	60,514	$82.83	$65.79	673
New York	59,507	$89.17	$64.75	622
Pennsylvania	43,763	$78.74	$61.57	456
Massachusetts	38,946	$83.45	$62.05	352
Illinois	36,063	$81.53	$63.47	378
Ohio	32,198	$76.80	$62.42	380
North Carolina	24,354	$82.39	$67.22	224
Virginia	24,005	$84.58	$66.56	171
Tennessee	22,251	$85.33	$70.58	213
Maryland	21,838	$91.33	$68.71	181
New Jersey	21,536	$92.11	$67.57	181
Michigan	21,352	$78.17	$62.13	303
Georgia	21,196	$94.35	$75.76	183
Washington	20,952	$84.82	$64.32	191
Arizona	20,333	$83.45	$66.88	146
Missouri	19,634	$77.56	$62.37	197
South Carolina	17,524	$76.84	$62.77	126
Indiana	17,516	$83.90	$69.04	159
Minnesota	16,675	$81.51	$63.70	223
Wisconsin	16,596	$78.87	$63.05	198
Colorado	12,956	$94.33	$72.39	124
Kentucky	12,315	$78.17	$63.47	121
Kansas	11,505	$80.89	$66.25	91
Iowa	11,227	$83.11	$67.62	94
Alabama	11,196	$80.09	$66.38	107
Louisiana	10,580	$78.73	$64.88	119
Oklahoma	9,559	$80.27	$65.84	71
Arkansas	8,558	$95.43	$80.97	66
Connecticut	8,209	$86.95	$65.48	121
Oregon	7,807	$87.05	$67.59	87
Nebraska	7,705	$95.78	$78.86	60
Mississippi	7,443	$76.65	$62.88	63
Utah	7,307	$78.89	$63.77	81
New Hampshire	5,137	$78.35	$61.07	49
South Dakota	4,583	$77.31	$61.78	24
Nevada	4,337	$81.56	$66.51	47
District of Columbia	4,231	$84.43	$61.43	37
West Virginia	4,150	$75.65	$60.68	52
Delaware	3,937	$80.13	$63.17	26
Maine	3,811	$77.49	$60.94	33
Montana	3,462	$79.50	$64.06	23
New Mexico	3,324	$84.85	$69.05	38
Rhode Island	2,901	$80.52	$61.44	44
Idaho	2,545	$79.67	$65.37	19
North Dakota	2,517	$78.66	$62.10	28
Hawaii	1,970	$84.71	$63.73	24
Alaska	1,673	$105.84	$63.99	14
Vermont	1,650	$76.88	$60.61	30
Puerto Rico	541	$82.86	$68.21	15
ZZ	499	$80.02	$60.48	4
Wyoming	336	$84.65	$67.92	4
Guam	52	$83.38	$58.67	1
AP	45	$77.87	$62.13	1
AE	34	$85.03	$61.53	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
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
88374Microscopic genetic analysis of tissue$108.04

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.