# CPT 88173

> Medicare paid $156.67 for CPT 88173 in the office (non-facility) setting and $156.67 in a facility under the Q2 2021 Physician Fee Schedule, effective April 2021. These are the national allowed amounts before the ~2% sequestration cut and before locality (GPCI) adjustment. This price has been unchanged since Q1 2021, when it decreased 0.4%.

## What it is

The pathologist's diagnostic read of material drawn out of a lump with a fine needle: examining the cells on the slides, reaching a conclusion, and issuing a written report. It is the interpretive half of the workflow - a different code covers actually taking the sample, and others cover the quick on-the-spot check that enough material was obtained. This is where the verdict of benign, malignant, or too little material to say comes from.

## Selected release

- Release: Q2 2021 (2021 B)
- Effective: April 1 – June 30, 2021
- Status indicator: A
- Office (non-facility) national allowed amount: $156.67
- Facility national allowed amount: $156.67
- Sequestration: not applied

## RVUs and formula

- Work RVU: 1.39
- Office (non-facility) practice expense RVU: 3.04
- Facility practice expense RVU: 3.04
- Malpractice RVU: 0.06
- Conversion factor: 34.8931
- Formula: `(work_rvu × work_gpci + pe_rvu × pe_gpci + mp_rvu × mp_gpci) × conversion_factor`

## Source and citation

- Source: Physician relative value file (Q2 2021)
- CMS file: https://www.cms.gov/files/zip/rvu21b-updated-03022021.zip
- Parsed file: PPRRVU21_APR.csv, row 15,403
- Canonical page: https://localishealth.com/cpt/88173/2021/A
- Release-specific citation URL: https://localishealth.com/cpt/88173/2021/B
- Last significant update: 2026-08-04T03:10:33+00:00