How much does Medicare pay for CPT 88342?

Medicare allowed an average of $58.61 per service and paid $46.24 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $192.51, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 88342?

Special stained specimen slides to examine tissue, initial procedure. It was billed 2,417,798 times to 1,829,891 Medicare beneficiaries by 11,517 providers in 2024.

Does 88342 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $83.11 in an office setting and $33.81 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 88342 most?

Pathology, with 1,751,934 services from 10,214 clinicians. Next are Clinical Laboratory, Dermatology, Gastroenterology.

CPT 88342

Special stained specimen slides to examine tissue, initial procedure

$58.61Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 2,417,798 services

Providers submitted

$192.51

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$58.61

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$46.24

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $192.51 for this code and Medicare allowed $58.61 — 3.3× 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 $46.24 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $83.11
Hospital / facility: $33.81

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. 1,216,169 services were billed in an office setting and 1,201,629 in a facility.

Services: 2,417,798
Beneficiaries: 1,829,891
Providers billing it: 11,517
Total allowed: $141,707,141

What Medicare pays for CPT 88342

Across 2,417,798 services billed by 11,517 providers to 1,829,891 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $58.61 per service. That is 1.3 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 88342

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Pathology	1,751,934	1,351,032	$50.27	10,214
Clinical Laboratory	495,537	350,367	$83.15	421
Dermatology	146,176	113,027	$76.54	623
Gastroenterology	9,110	5,581	$50.07	95
Urology	3,496	1,841	$41.91	25
Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery	3,435	2,505	$84.99	48
Neurology	1,157	505	$51.70	18
Internal Medicine	1,059	523	$36.33	9
General Practice	981	838	$50.22	3
Diagnostic Radiology	747	649	$36.07	5
Ophthalmology	732	569	$44.25	14
Undefined Physician type	696	513	$39.38	1
Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology	559	226	$36.66	2
Hematology	435	359	$34.24	7
Anesthesiology	254	146	$34.78	2

88342 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	241,696	$65.38	$52.19	741
California	228,017	$61.91	$42.65	1,021
New York	182,882	$62.17	$43.60	866
Texas	181,357	$61.24	$48.82	951
Pennsylvania	111,808	$53.12	$41.07	578
Illinois	108,230	$54.73	$42.57	478
Maryland	96,020	$76.24	$53.40	247
Massachusetts	95,126	$54.74	$39.36	481
New Jersey	93,228	$64.66	$45.90	260
Arizona	80,337	$67.00	$53.38	230
Ohio	73,371	$48.22	$39.99	474
Tennessee	72,101	$64.46	$53.65	311
Virginia	61,614	$56.21	$43.75	211
North Carolina	59,820	$58.68	$48.04	328
Georgia	56,174	$64.82	$51.35	266
Arkansas	46,776	$70.11	$61.73	132
Wisconsin	44,484	$56.65	$45.02	260
Missouri	40,991	$52.18	$42.06	239
Washington	40,808	$59.95	$43.39	259
Michigan	36,379	$39.84	$31.57	392
Indiana	36,215	$44.63	$36.75	191
Minnesota	33,797	$49.53	$38.01	317
South Carolina	31,686	$48.01	$40.20	162
Colorado	29,359	$57.26	$43.70	170
Kansas	28,477	$51.14	$42.36	109
Connecticut	28,289	$67.18	$49.64	168
Alabama	23,860	$62.59	$53.27	142
Louisiana	22,608	$39.02	$32.50	150
Iowa	21,147	$48.32	$39.52	113
Kentucky	20,697	$39.40	$32.40	152
Oregon	19,622	$48.35	$36.41	127
Mississippi	15,743	$51.41	$43.37	72
Oklahoma	14,093	$45.23	$37.91	80
Delaware	12,928	$54.26	$43.75	40
Utah	12,736	$53.53	$43.79	97
Nebraska	12,593	$38.97	$31.81	70
New Hampshire	12,582	$44.46	$34.36	65
North Dakota	12,500	$39.32	$30.43	36
West Virginia	8,610	$41.11	$32.53	64
District of Columbia	8,592	$44.82	$33.05	44
Nevada	8,236	$58.88	$46.65	57
New Mexico	7,875	$47.70	$39.24	49
South Dakota	7,346	$37.44	$29.30	30
Maine	7,132	$34.43	$26.99	48
Montana	6,253	$35.54	$28.41	27
Rhode Island	5,539	$41.53	$31.48	55
Hawaii	5,284	$57.76	$42.16	38
Idaho	4,681	$53.21	$44.40	26
Vermont	3,933	$34.42	$26.90	45
Alaska	1,986	$46.18	$28.83	15
Puerto Rico	1,373	$82.48	$64.77	21
Wyoming	450	$38.66	$31.52	5
ZZ	271	$34.95	$26.80	5
AP	67	$55.53	$39.90	1
AE	19	$34.85	$26.68	1

Related codes

88305Pathology examination of tissue$50.75
88341Special stained specimen slides to examine tissue$40.33
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
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.