CPT code 88321: Slide consultation, outside-prepared slides2026 Medicare rate & RVUs in Alaska

In Alaska, Medicare pays $121.86 for 88321 in the office and $93.76 when it’s performed in a hospital or facility.

Check a contract rate as a % of Medicare · 88321 nationwide

Medicare allowed amount for participating (non-QP) physicians, before deductible, coinsurance and claim adjustments. Not a patient’s bill or a hospital charge.

What 88321 covers

A pathologist examines slides that another laboratory has already prepared and provides an interpretive consultation report. A common situation is a treating clinician requesting an outside review of biopsy or resection slides before deciding on diagnosis or treatment. The service is performed by a pathologist in a hospital, reference laboratory, or other pathology practice; it is not the preparation of new slides from submitted tissue.

Select this code when the consultation is based on slides prepared elsewhere. The report should identify the material reviewed and document the pathologist’s interpretation and conclusions. Use a different consultation code when the referred material requires preparation or when the service involves a broader review of records and specimens. This code represents the slide-review consultation, rather than the original laboratory’s tissue examination or a stain service.

This summary was written with AI assistance from CMS physician fee schedule data and checked against the CMS billing rules shown here. Rates on this page come directly from CMS files.

How Alaska compares for 88321

Across 109 of 109 payment localities, the office rate for 88321 runs from $87.31 in Arkansas to $121.86 in Alaska. Alaska pays $121.86. The RVUs are the same everywhere; the geographic indexes change the dollars.

Every other payment area

88321 rates by state

Office rate range in each state. Select a state to see its payment localities.

See 88321 in every payment locality

How the 88321 rate is calculated

Each of 88321’s three RVUs is multiplied by a geographic index (GPCI) for the payment locality, added up, and multiplied by the conversion factor. Drag the indexes or enter a ZIP to see what moves the rate.

Payment rules and modifiers for 88321

88321 has no global surgery period, no multiple-procedure, bilateral or assistant-at-surgery adjustment, and no professional/technical split. What changes the payment is where the service happens: the place of service on the claim decides whether Medicare pays the office or the facility rate.

Codes related to 88321

Related codes aren’t interchangeable: bill the code that matches the service performed.

How 88321 has changed in Alaska

Price 88321 for an earlier date of service

Where the Alaska rate applies

Alaska is a Medicare payment area, not a city. Our Census mapping connects it to 355 cities and communities in Alaska. Some span more than one payment area; confirm with the service ZIP.

• Adak
• Akhiok
• Akiachak
• Akiak
• Akutan
• Alakanuk
• Alatna
• Alcan Border

Browse all communities in Alaska

Where these rates come from

FeeBase calculates base physician payments from CMS work, practice-expense and malpractice RVUs, adjusted by each locality’s geographic indexes and the conversion factor. Services without a published rate are labeled, never given a made-up amount. Amounts are Medicare allowed amounts before claim adjustments: not a patient’s bill or a commercial rate.

CMS RVU26D · effective Oct 1, 2026 through the day before Jan 1, 2027

Open CMS sourceHow we calculate rates