How much does Medicare pay for CPT 88348?

Medicare allowed an average of $76.51 per service and paid $60.87 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $345.29, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 88348?

Electron microscopy for diagnosis. It was billed 12,512 times to 12,110 Medicare beneficiaries by 261 providers in 2024.

Does 88348 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $116.29 in an office setting and $73.48 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 88348 most?

Pathology, with 11,769 services from 253 clinicians. Next are Clinical Laboratory.

CPT 88348

Electron microscopy for diagnosis

$76.51Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 12,512 services

Providers submitted

$345.29

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$76.51

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$60.87

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $345.29 for this code and Medicare allowed $76.51 — 4.5× 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 $60.87 (80%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $116.29
Hospital / facility: $73.48

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. 885 services were billed in an office setting and 11,627 in a facility.

Services: 12,512
Beneficiaries: 12,110
Providers billing it: 261
Total allowed: $957,293

What Medicare pays for CPT 88348

Across 12,512 services billed by 261 providers to 12,110 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $76.51 per service. 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 88348

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Pathology	11,769	11,402	$74.29	253
Clinical Laboratory	743	708	$111.73	8

88348 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
Arkansas	3,379	$72.59	$62.98	29
California	1,429	$86.40	$61.90	25
New York	849	$92.95	$66.36	22
Minnesota	831	$77.23	$60.21	16
Massachusetts	599	$78.37	$57.79	14
Texas	591	$72.04	$57.61	16
Ohio	544	$71.17	$57.72	18
Arizona	362	$72.10	$57.77	5
Illinois	340	$75.57	$57.62	9
Tennessee	327	$71.44	$59.14	8
North Carolina	270	$69.24	$58.22	8
Florida	240	$76.07	$60.38	7
Pennsylvania	228	$72.40	$58.49	6
Missouri	227	$74.70	$57.37	6
Oklahoma	227	$79.17	$62.70	3
Wisconsin	224	$70.83	$57.62	3
Alabama	194	$69.34	$57.35	6
Washington	183	$81.56	$57.90	6
Maryland	182	$75.51	$57.53	5
Michigan	176	$72.15	$57.56	7
Louisiana	173	$69.83	$58.23	6
Connecticut	154	$76.27	$58.05	5
Utah	152	$78.81	$63.76	5
Georgia	90	$75.93	$57.38	2
Iowa	70	$70.38	$57.18	3
Indiana	70	$70.70	$57.21	3
District of Columbia	68	$79.83	$58.13	3
Oregon	65	$78.72	$57.93	2
Virginia	54	$77.83	$57.00	3
New Jersey	46	$77.09	$58.40	2
Vermont	34	$72.39	$58.05	1
South Carolina	34	$68.61	$58.39	1
New Hampshire	21	$68.84	$59.54	1
Hawaii	18	$80.14	$57.94	1
West Virginia	17	$73.43	$58.13	1
Rhode Island	16	$74.70	$57.90	1
Kansas	14	$73.09	$58.12	1
Colorado	14	$74.96	$58.12	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.