Immunohistochemistry Stain, First Antibody
CPT 88342
Ordered when a pathologist needs to identify a tumor's cell of origin, or to check a tissue for a specific protein marker.
No national payment amount
Status I is not separately payable under the PFS.
Did Medicare pay separately for CPT 88342 in Q4 2014?
Not at a published national rate. CPT 88342 carries status I (not valid) in the Q4 2014 release. Medicare uses a different code to report and pay for this service. Treat the blank amount as unpriced, not as $0.
Source: Physician relative value file (Q4 2014) · effective October 2014 · materially updated Aug 4, 2026 · compact facts
How often 88342 is billed
Across Original Medicare in CY2024, 88342 ranked #110 of the 7,879 CPT codes billed to Medicare that year, ranked by patients served or total allowed dollars. Patients who received it in 2024 were billed for it an average of 1.6 times that year — more than once per patient.
2024 Medicare fee-for-service only, national totals — Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and commercial volume are excluded, so real-world use runs higher. This is a calendar-year snapshot from the CMS Physician & Other Practitioners dataset, on a different cycle from the Q4 2014 fee schedule the rates above come from.
Common questions
Why is there no payment amount for 88342?
Its status indicator is I (not valid). Medicare uses a different code to report and pay for this service. The blank is deliberate: the amount is either unknown or paid under another provision, so reading it as $0 would be wrong.
Why would a Medicare claim for 88342 be denied or paid less?
Each item below comes from a CMS indicator on this page — not general billing advice.
- Its status indicator is I (not valid) — Medicare uses a different code to report and pay for this service. See status indicators
- 88342 splits into a professional component (modifier 26) and a technical component (modifier TC) — a claim for only one part needs that modifier to price correctly. See billing policy
- Bilateral surgery: no bilateral adjustment. See billing policy
- Assistant at surgery: restricted without documentation. See billing policy
- Co-surgeons: not permitted. See billing policy
- Team surgery: not permitted. See billing policy
Payer-specific coverage and documentation rules live outside these files, so a claim that clears every check here can still be denied on other grounds.
When does this rate change?
CMS publishes a fee schedule release every quarter (January, April, July, October), and each is versioned here. The 88342 rate last moved in Q1 2026 (+1.1% non-facility) — see its rate history or what changed each release, or get an email when a new release moves rates.
Sources: CMS Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Relative Value Files.
Saw this code on your bill?
What is a 88342 visit in patient-friendly terms?
In plain terms: A test in which a laboratory-made antibody is applied to a tissue slide to reveal whether a specific protein is present, followed by the pathologist's reading of the stained slide. The antibody carries a marker that produces visible color wherever its target protein sits, so the result is read as a pattern on the tissue rather than as a number. Immunohistochemistry is how pathologists identify what type of cell a tumor came from when appearance alone is ambiguous. This code covers the first antibody run on a given tissue block; further antibodies on the same block are reported separately. Think of a cancer found in a lymph node where nobody yet knows where it started. Pathologists work through a sequence of antibody stains, each one asking a yes-or-no question about a protein, until the pattern points to breast, lung, or somewhere else. The same technique is what checks a breast tumor for estrogen and progesterone receptors. You'll typically see CPT 88342 on a bill or explanation of benefits (EOB) when a clinician performs or bills for this service.
How this amount is computed
amount = (work RVU × work GPCI + PE RVU × PE GPCI + MP RVU × MP GPCI) × conversion factor. National amounts use GPCI = 1.000. To price an RVU figure of your own, use the RVU-to-dollars converter.
| Component | RVU |
|---|---|
| Work RVU | blank |
| Practice expense RVU (non-facility) | blank |
| Practice expense RVU (facility) | blank |
| Malpractice RVU | blank |
Every rate combines three parts: work (the clinician’s time, skill and effort), practice expense (office overhead — higher when the service is done in a doctor’s own office), and malpractice (the share of liability-insurance cost). A blank means CMS publishes no national number for that part. Read it as unknown, and never as zero.
Billing policy
What 88342's billing-policy indicators mean. These show for every code, priced or not: a restriction like "bilateral not allowed" still matters on a carrier-priced code.
| Policy | Value | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Bilateral surgery | 0 | No bilateral adjustment. The 150% bilateral payment adjustment does not apply to this procedure. |
| Assistant at surgery | 0 | Restricted without documentation. Payment for an assistant at surgery is restricted for this procedure unless supporting documentation establishes medical necessity. |
| Co-surgeons | 0 | Not permitted. Medicare does not recognize co-surgeons (modifier 62) for this procedure. |
| Team surgery | 0 | Not permitted. Medicare does not recognize a surgical team (modifier 66) for this procedure. |
| Multiple procedures | 0 | No reduction. No payment reduction applies when this procedure is billed with other procedures on the same date — each is treated as unrelated. |
| Professional/technical split | 1 | Splits into professional and technical. This procedure splits into a professional component (modifier 26) and a technical component (modifier TC), each separately payable. |
Rate history by release
National non-facility amount for 88342 across quarterly releases. Up 21.8% since Q1 2015 · high $111.60 in Q1 2018
| Release | Status | Non-facility | Facility |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q3 2026 Jun 30, 2026 – present | A | $110.22 (0.0%) | $110.22 (0.0%) |
| Q2 2026 Mar 10, 2026 – Jun 29, 2026 | A | $110.22 (0.0%) | $110.22 (0.0%) |
| Q1 2026 Dec 29, 2025 – Mar 9, 2026 | A | $110.22 (+1.1%) | $110.22 (+1.1%) |
| Q4 2025 Sep 11, 2025 – Dec 28, 2025 | A | $109.01 (0.0%) | $109.01 (0.0%) |
| Q3 2025 Jun 5, 2025 – Sep 10, 2025 | A | $109.01 (0.0%) | $109.01 (0.0%) |
| Q2 2025 Jun 5, 2025 – Jun 4, 2025 | A | $109.01 (0.0%) | $109.01 (0.0%) |
| Q1 2025 Dec 23, 2024 – Jun 4, 2025 | A | $109.01 (+3.0%) | $109.01 (+3.0%) |
| Q4 2024 Aug 9, 2024 – Dec 22, 2024 | A | $105.85 (0.0%) | $105.85 (0.0%) |
| Q3 2024 May 3, 2024 – Aug 8, 2024 | A | $105.85 (0.0%) | $105.85 (0.0%) |
| Q2 2024 Mar 15, 2024 – May 2, 2024 | A | $105.85 (0.0%) | $105.85 (0.0%) |
| Q1 2024 Mar 11, 2023 – Mar 14, 2024 | A | $105.85 (+4.8%) | $105.85 (+4.8%) |
| Q4 2023 Aug 1, 2023 – Mar 10, 2023 | A | $100.98 (0.0%) | $100.98 (0.0%) |
| Q3 2023 May 10, 2023 – Jul 31, 2023 | A | $100.98 (0.0%) | $100.98 (0.0%) |
| Q2 2023 Feb 3, 2023 – May 9, 2023 | A | $100.98 (0.0%) | $100.98 (0.0%) |
| Q1 2023 Jan 30, 2023 – Feb 2, 2023 | A | $100.98 (-1.4%) | $100.98 (-1.4%) |
| Q4 2022 Jul 29, 2022 – Jan 29, 2023 | A | $102.43 (0.0%) | $102.43 (0.0%) |
| Q3 2022 Jun 17, 2022 – Jul 28, 2022 | A | $102.43 (0.0%) | $102.43 (0.0%) |
| Q2 2022 Feb 14, 2022 – Jun 16, 2022 | A | $102.43 (0.0%) | $102.43 (0.0%) |
| Q1 2022 Dec 15, 2021 – Feb 13, 2022 | A | $102.43 (-3.4%) | $102.43 (-3.4%) |
| Q4 2021 Aug 3, 2021 – Dec 14, 2021 | A | $106.08 (0.0%) | $106.08 (0.0%) |
| Q3 2021 Jun 10, 2021 – Aug 2, 2021 | A | $106.08 (0.0%) | $106.08 (0.0%) |
| Q2 2021 Feb 26, 2021 – Jun 9, 2021 | A | $106.08 (0.0%) | $106.08 (0.0%) |
| Q1 2021 Dec 29, 2020 – Feb 25, 2021 | A | $106.08 (-1.0%) | $106.08 (-1.0%) |
| Q4 2020 Oct 21, 2020 – Dec 28, 2020 | A | $107.19 (0.0%) | $107.19 (0.0%) |
| Q3 2020 Jun 18, 2020 – Oct 20, 2020 | A | $107.19 (0.0%) | $107.19 (0.0%) |
| Q2 2020 Apr 30, 2020 – Jun 17, 2020 | A | $107.19 (0.0%) | $107.19 (0.0%) |
| Q1 2020 Nov 8, 2019 – Apr 29, 2020 | A | $107.19 (-1.2%) | $107.19 (-1.2%) |
| Q4 2019 Aug 2, 2019 – Nov 7, 2019 | A | $108.48 (0.0%) | $108.48 (0.0%) |
| Q3 2019 May 3, 2019 – Aug 1, 2019 | A | $108.48 (0.0%) | $108.48 (0.0%) |
| Q2 2019 Mar 1, 2019 – May 2, 2019 | A | $108.48 (0.0%) | $108.48 (0.0%) |
| Q1 2019 Dec 13, 2018 – Feb 28, 2019 | A | $108.48 (-2.8%) | $108.48 (-2.8%) |
| Q4 2018 Aug 3, 2018 – Dec 12, 2018 | A | $111.60 (0.0%) | $111.60 (0.0%) |
| Q3 2018 Apr 30, 2018 – Aug 2, 2018 | A | $111.60 (0.0%) | $111.60 (0.0%) |
| Q2 2018 Feb 12, 2018 – Apr 29, 2018 | A | $111.60 (0.0%) | $111.60 (0.0%) |
| Q1 2018 Feb 9, 2018 – Feb 11, 2018 | A | $111.60 (+3.0%) | $111.60 (+3.0%) |
| Q4 2017 Aug 18, 2017 – Feb 8, 2018 | A | $108.38 (0.0%) | $108.38 (0.0%) |
| Q3 2017 May 3, 2017 – Aug 17, 2017 | A | $108.38 (0.0%) | $108.38 (0.0%) |
| Q2 2017 Feb 9, 2017 – May 2, 2017 | A | $108.38 (0.0%) | $108.38 (0.0%) |
| Q1 2017 Nov 14, 2016 – Feb 8, 2017 | A | $108.38 (+0.9%) | $108.38 (+0.9%) |
| Q4 2016 Aug 5, 2016 – Nov 13, 2016 | A | $107.41 (0.0%) | $107.41 (0.0%) |
| Q3 2016 May 17, 2016 – Aug 4, 2016 | A | $107.41 (0.0%) | $107.41 (0.0%) |
| Q2 2016 Feb 2, 2016 – May 16, 2016 | A | $107.41 (0.0%) | $107.41 (0.0%) |
| Q1 2016 Jan 21, 2016 – Feb 1, 2016 | A | $107.41 (+18.1%) | $107.41 (+18.1%) |
| Q4 2015 Oct 2, 2015 – Jan 20, 2016 | A | $90.91 (+0.5%) | $90.91 (+0.5%) |
| Q3 2015 May 15, 2015 – Oct 1, 2015 | A | $90.46 (0.0%) | $90.46 (0.0%) |
| Q2 2015 Feb 13, 2015 – May 14, 2015 | A | $90.46 (0.0%) | $90.46 (0.0%) |
| Q1 2015 Dec 23, 2014 – Feb 12, 2015 | A | $90.46 | $90.46 |
| Q4 2014 Aug 19, 2014 – Dec 22, 2014 | I | — | — |
| Q3 2014 May 15, 2014 – Aug 18, 2014 | I | — | — |
| Q2 2014 Mar 24, 2014 – May 14, 2014 | I | — | — |
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Source & method
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This is computed from CMS's Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Q4 2014 release (schedule pfs, effective October 2014). National amounts apply a GPCI of 1.000 and leave sequestration off. The status indicator decides payability, never the RVU values, so a blank RVU stays blank. Releases are immutable: a rate retrieved for a past quarter always reflects that release. Commercial and cash-pay figures anywhere on this page are arithmetic on the Medicare amount, using commonly cited reimbursement ranges. They're illustrative, and no nationwide claims database stands behind them. Our methodology covers all of this in depth — sourcing, parsing, versioning, and how claims are cross-checked before they ship.
Description written from primary sources: CMS Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Relative Value Files. Not derived from AMA CPT descriptor text.
Conversion factor $35.8228 read from the same file, row 11, column 25.
Use the (i) buttons next to each amount above for the exact row, columns, and math.
Cite this rate
This link keeps pointing at the Q4 2014 figures, even after a newer release lands.
CPT 88342 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule rate (Q4 2014). Localis. https://localishealth.com/cpt/88342/2014/D