How much does Medicare pay for CPT 88312?

Medicare allowed an average of $75.82 per service and paid $59.59 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $184.77, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 88312?

Special stained specimen slides to identify organisms including interpretation and report. It was billed 1,382,731 times to 750,089 Medicare beneficiaries by 6,961 providers in 2024.

Does 88312 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $89.44 in an office setting and $27.43 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 88312 most?

Pathology, with 822,412 services from 5,618 clinicians. Next are Clinical Laboratory, Dermatology, Gastroenterology.

CPT 88312

Special stained specimen slides to identify organisms including interpretation and report

$75.82Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 1,382,731 services

Providers submitted

$184.77

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$75.82

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$59.59

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $184.77 for this code and Medicare allowed $75.82 — 2.4× 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 $59.59 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $89.44
Hospital / facility: $27.43

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. 1,078,956 services were billed in an office setting and 303,775 in a facility.

Services: 1,382,731
Beneficiaries: 750,089
Providers billing it: 6,961
Total allowed: $104,838,664

What Medicare pays for CPT 88312

Across 1,382,731 services billed by 6,961 providers to 750,089 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $75.82 per service. That is 1.8 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 88312

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Pathology	822,412	458,333	$67.38	5,618
Clinical Laboratory	402,888	210,100	$88.79	388
Dermatology	75,037	45,338	$90.56	464
Gastroenterology	50,690	26,666	$76.86	375
Podiatry	20,915	3,761	$109.64	23
Internal Medicine	4,768	2,579	$65.86	34
Slide Preparation Facility	1,028	720	$90.54	6
Ophthalmology	841	303	$31.56	11
Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology	802	185	$28.11	1
Anesthesiology	657	175	$83.61	3
Undefined Physician type	576	335	$29.88	1
Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery	371	273	$102.14	5
Oral Surgery (Dentist only)	352	278	$69.09	11
Diagnostic Radiology	317	253	$24.31	4
General Practice	310	192	$53.97	3

88312 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
Florida	226,842	$70.39	$56.00	512
New York	155,069	$85.49	$58.77	448
California	148,032	$88.26	$60.72	726
Georgia	107,871	$94.70	$74.34	239
Texas	107,565	$75.75	$60.64	595
Arkansas	64,538	$60.70	$53.20	86
New Jersey	56,534	$94.15	$66.81	164
Maryland	41,990	$91.27	$63.99	130
Massachusetts	41,957	$80.62	$56.98	232
Pennsylvania	39,697	$73.45	$55.72	304
Illinois	31,996	$62.78	$48.98	272
Tennessee	30,025	$70.20	$59.48	198
Arizona	29,326	$82.71	$66.92	152
Ohio	25,379	$66.77	$56.53	251
Virginia	24,480	$62.01	$47.61	137
North Carolina	21,938	$69.30	$57.23	174
South Carolina	19,965	$66.25	$57.92	128
Wisconsin	17,091	$58.38	$46.29	151
Alabama	14,028	$71.21	$62.52	97
Missouri	13,188	$54.75	$45.09	159
Washington	12,753	$72.48	$52.99	140
Louisiana	12,168	$53.29	$45.82	113
Connecticut	11,951	$80.37	$58.99	88
Colorado	10,763	$63.56	$48.11	114
Michigan	9,772	$61.04	$48.20	146
Oklahoma	9,354	$47.82	$40.18	55
Indiana	8,937	$47.23	$38.96	124
Mississippi	8,579	$39.06	$33.33	64
Minnesota	8,160	$42.42	$32.71	151
Utah	8,061	$86.69	$68.92	58
Kansas	8,040	$45.56	$37.56	76
Kentucky	6,399	$48.34	$40.15	105
Oregon	6,012	$60.91	$45.46	72
New Mexico	5,122	$59.13	$47.55	29
Iowa	4,886	$58.32	$47.75	68
New Hampshire	4,867	$60.29	$45.98	41
Nebraska	3,459	$30.45	$24.28	50
Delaware	3,206	$60.50	$47.96	23
North Dakota	2,502	$34.44	$26.24	26
Idaho	2,369	$66.43	$56.33	18
Nevada	2,367	$65.25	$52.06	29
Puerto Rico	2,305	$98.03	$77.25	18
West Virginia	1,963	$52.60	$43.18	33
District of Columbia	1,796	$47.72	$34.38	22
South Dakota	1,533	$32.78	$25.46	22
Montana	1,405	$44.86	$34.84	20
Hawaii	1,405	$78.43	$55.01	18
Maine	1,293	$32.07	$24.54	23
Rhode Island	1,234	$33.73	$25.59	22
Alaska	1,213	$35.61	$20.38	13
Vermont	1,010	$30.25	$23.38	19
Guam	129	$26.68	$19.72	1
Wyoming	90	$86.90	$68.12	2
AP	68	$57.76	$42.07	1
AE	31	$27.57	$20.03	1
ZZ	19	$24.68	$20.03	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
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
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.