How much does Medicare pay for CPT 88314?

Medicare allowed an average of $63.99 per service and paid $50.93 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $149.67, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 88314?

Special stained specimen slides to examine tissue and frozen preparation of specimen including interpretation and report. It was billed 31,437 times to 11,388 Medicare beneficiaries by 72 providers in 2024.

Does 88314 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $71.04 in an office setting and $19.34 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 88314 most?

Clinical Laboratory, with 27,715 services from 15 clinicians. Next are Pathology, Neurology, Podiatry.

CPT 88314

Special stained specimen slides to examine tissue and frozen preparation of specimen including interpretation and report

$63.99Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 31,437 services

Providers submitted

$149.67

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$63.99

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$50.93

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $149.67 for this code and Medicare allowed $63.99 — 2.3× 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 $50.93 (80%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $71.04
Hospital / facility: $19.34

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. 27,151 services were billed in an office setting and 4,286 in a facility.

Services: 31,437
Beneficiaries: 11,388
Providers billing it: 72
Total allowed: $2,011,654

What Medicare pays for CPT 88314

Across 31,437 services billed by 72 providers to 11,388 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $63.99 per service. That is 2.8 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 88314

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Clinical Laboratory	27,715	9,663	$64.83	15
Pathology	1,728	870	$41.36	26
Neurology	701	203	$46.75	10
Podiatry	561	243	$80.88	5
Dermatology	385	288	$88.99	9
Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery	281	95	$90.95	6
Anesthesiology	66	26	$84.98	1

88314 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
Arizona	21,822	$61.69	$50.37	5
Texas	3,328	$80.12	$65.49	7
New York	1,604	$92.08	$63.61	4
California	1,102	$69.18	$48.05	16
Arkansas	963	$47.18	$41.79	5
Minnesota	451	$20.23	$15.82	4
Missouri	420	$26.85	$21.84	1
Utah	280	$86.20	$69.26	4
Nevada	218	$89.76	$69.24	3
Massachusetts	206	$53.82	$42.14	4
Maryland	174	$33.00	$24.94	4
Colorado	147	$59.68	$45.78	1
Georgia	134	$104.19	$69.42	1
Tennessee	132	$23.32	$19.49	1
South Dakota	86	$86.53	$67.53	2
Vermont	72	$19.09	$15.36	1
Connecticut	60	$94.36	$69.34	1
Louisiana	52	$18.78	$15.37	1
Ohio	40	$18.96	$15.40	1
New Hampshire	38	$17.81	$15.64	1
Iowa	32	$80.26	$69.31	1
North Carolina	26	$18.62	$14.74	1
Pennsylvania	21	$18.93	$15.35	1
Washington	16	$89.90	$69.42	1
New Mexico	13	$79.77	$70.49	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.