How much does Medicare pay for CPT 88344?

Medicare allowed an average of $100.56 per service and paid $79.86 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $281.93, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 88344?

Special stained specimen slides to examine tissue, each multiplex procedure. It was billed 180,774 times to 87,065 Medicare beneficiaries by 2,065 providers in 2024.

Does 88344 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $148.23 in an office setting and $38.47 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 88344 most?

Pathology, with 134,510 services from 1,839 clinicians. Next are Clinical Laboratory, Dermatology, Urology.

CPT 88344

Special stained specimen slides to examine tissue, each multiplex procedure

$100.56Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 180,774 services

Providers submitted

$281.93

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$100.56

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$79.86

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $281.93 for this code and Medicare allowed $100.56 — 2.8× 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 $79.86 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $148.23
Hospital / facility: $38.47

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. 102,263 services were billed in an office setting and 78,511 in a facility.

Services: 180,774
Beneficiaries: 87,065
Providers billing it: 2,065
Total allowed: $18,178,633

What Medicare pays for CPT 88344

Across 180,774 services billed by 2,065 providers to 87,065 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $100.56 per service. That is 2.1 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 88344

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Pathology	134,510	67,304	$85.28	1,839
Clinical Laboratory	36,110	16,450	$135.53	159
Dermatology	8,550	2,459	$190.08	38
Urology	824	493	$84.00	20
Podiatry	552	243	$157.55	5
Gastroenterology	102	54	$135.91	1
Anesthesiology	66	26	$165.89	1
Internal Medicine	31	12	$116.60	1
Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery	29	24	$144.89	1

88344 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	28,235	$132.48	$90.27	192
Illinois	13,521	$105.89	$82.22	117
Pennsylvania	11,659	$80.77	$58.46	142
New Jersey	11,410	$149.51	$103.68	65
New York	8,283	$95.43	$66.80	125
Florida	7,959	$86.55	$70.24	127
Massachusetts	7,761	$76.27	$54.08	121
Maryland	6,868	$168.19	$110.69	53
Texas	6,793	$111.16	$86.01	102
Utah	6,089	$131.39	$114.15	11
Arizona	5,663	$95.44	$79.75	65
Tennessee	5,116	$97.69	$84.34	59
Ohio	5,021	$51.94	$43.43	86
Washington	4,275	$82.91	$63.76	52
North Carolina	4,210	$74.29	$62.33	57
Virginia	4,186	$74.89	$60.05	51
Wisconsin	4,109	$51.99	$42.32	69
Georgia	3,991	$92.25	$78.34	38
Oklahoma	3,670	$115.40	$100.54	26
Connecticut	3,209	$101.22	$74.19	36
Michigan	2,907	$70.35	$58.22	53
Indiana	2,816	$65.60	$55.77	46
Missouri	2,442	$61.05	$50.58	34
Colorado	2,024	$102.35	$73.94	20
Minnesota	1,600	$108.49	$77.53	26
Kentucky	1,364	$66.72	$57.10	15
Louisiana	1,349	$52.24	$45.67	21
South Carolina	1,325	$43.32	$35.93	26
Alabama	1,204	$88.21	$78.11	22
North Dakota	1,049	$38.35	$29.46	16
Kansas	1,003	$58.89	$49.68	15
New Hampshire	935	$52.04	$40.36	21
Maine	877	$38.89	$31.08	20
Iowa	823	$70.01	$58.36	16
Nebraska	774	$98.76	$84.39	10
Oregon	754	$59.26	$44.55	14
Delaware	720	$15.23	$28.78	8
Arkansas	691	$72.43	$63.37	14
New Mexico	633	$75.18	$63.11	10
Nevada	597	$125.32	$102.42	10
Idaho	468	$89.30	$76.13	5
Mississippi	451	$89.07	$77.91	7
West Virginia	402	$35.57	$28.78	12
Montana	370	$42.88	$34.54	6
District of Columbia	318	$38.55	$28.62	5
Hawaii	253	$90.39	$62.80	6
Vermont	195	$35.99	$28.47	5
Wyoming	172	$36.21	$28.92	1
Rhode Island	80	$37.96	$27.78	3
Alaska	78	$93.59	$66.49	2
ZZ	46	$35.30	$27.66	1
Puerto Rico	26	$169.92	$134.59	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
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.