How much does Medicare pay for CPT 88350?

Medicare allowed an average of $59.99 per service and paid $47.78 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $144.45, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 88350?

Antibody evaluation, each additional single antibody stain procedure. It was billed 237,791 times to 43,124 Medicare beneficiaries by 659 providers in 2024.

Does 88350 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $95.77 in an office setting and $27.76 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 88350 most?

Pathology, with 140,779 services from 473 clinicians. Next are Clinical Laboratory, Dermatology, Oral Surgery (Dentist only).

CPT 88350

Antibody evaluation, each additional single antibody stain procedure

$59.99Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 237,791 services

Providers submitted

$144.45

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$59.99

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$47.78

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $144.45 for this code and Medicare allowed $59.99 — 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 $47.78 (80%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $95.77
Hospital / facility: $27.76

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. 112,704 services were billed in an office setting and 125,087 in a facility.

Services: 237,791
Beneficiaries: 43,124
Providers billing it: 659
Total allowed: $14,265,082

What Medicare pays for CPT 88350

Across 237,791 services billed by 659 providers to 43,124 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $59.99 per service. That is 5.5 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 88350

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Pathology	140,779	20,668	$39.05	473
Clinical Laboratory	82,005	19,059	$93.71	83
Dermatology	13,392	3,024	$70.47	90
Oral Surgery (Dentist only)	872	208	$97.85	6
Undefined Physician type	348	81	$32.41	1
Ophthalmology	190	34	$139.03	2
Dentist	152	26	$73.09	2
Maxillofacial Surgery	42	13	$133.84	1
Hematology	11	11	$32.26	1

88350 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	33,223	$27.67	$23.93	32
Arizona	29,121	$74.67	$60.88	16
Florida	23,315	$99.48	$80.62	24
California	21,541	$57.00	$38.06	64
New York	15,186	$72.79	$51.30	46
Massachusetts	13,631	$69.71	$50.11	45
Minnesota	13,623	$43.25	$33.96	46
Texas	12,393	$73.05	$58.19	49
Ohio	9,649	$57.14	$47.49	36
Pennsylvania	6,083	$52.97	$42.55	30
Tennessee	6,014	$53.56	$45.66	24
Utah	5,069	$75.24	$60.93	11
Illinois	4,758	$48.42	$37.17	23
Washington	4,206	$55.83	$39.60	20
Wisconsin	3,651	$64.70	$52.08	21
Oklahoma	3,438	$42.36	$34.28	4
North Carolina	3,431	$48.63	$40.94	20
Missouri	3,205	$54.18	$43.21	17
Connecticut	3,052	$66.36	$50.39	9
Alabama	2,853	$44.05	$38.14	16
Maryland	2,342	$54.38	$41.39	8
Michigan	2,041	$41.62	$32.52	14
Virginia	2,009	$70.93	$57.17	10
South Carolina	1,763	$37.12	$31.85	3
Louisiana	1,720	$33.48	$28.92	10
Georgia	1,441	$48.32	$38.28	8
Oregon	1,393	$58.36	$41.03	7
Iowa	1,361	$36.53	$30.94	6
Indiana	1,192	$56.88	$47.76	6
District of Columbia	1,037	$30.39	$22.01	4
Nebraska	578	$26.58	$21.10	4
Hawaii	557	$76.61	$52.78	2
New Jersey	538	$30.18	$21.96	2
Vermont	513	$27.24	$21.70	5
Colorado	419	$95.65	$72.45	4
Kansas	235	$27.55	$21.53	2
Kentucky	208	$98.55	$88.51	2
West Virginia	208	$55.23	$42.63	2
New Hampshire	164	$26.90	$20.65	1
New Mexico	163	$103.37	$89.00	1
Montana	124	$27.06	$21.73	1
Rhode Island	108	$28.17	$21.86	1
Idaho	104	$27.39	$19.73	1
Maine	76	$71.09	$67.10	1
North Dakota	55	$27.66	$20.56	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
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.