How Much Does a Pathology Exam of Biopsy Tissue Cost in Alaska?
Tissue exam by pathologist
$88Hospital outpatient total2026 Medicare, physician + facilityUnder 2026 Medicare rates, a pathology exam of biopsy tissue costs up to about $88 in total at a hospital outpatient department, counting both the physician and the facility (national rates). Outside a hospital, at an independent imaging center, lab or office, Medicare's full rate in Alaska averages $85.
- ✓Your ZIP's wage-adjusted hospital and surgery center rates
- ✓Five nearby hospitals by name, with CMS star ratings
- ✓The add-on codes that typically land on the bill
- ✓A word-for-word script for asking for a good-faith estimate
- ✓A private link you can reopen and share
- ✓Everything in the Premium report
- ✓15 nearby hospitals instead of five
- ✓Filled good-faith-estimate request letter
- ✓Bill-negotiation letter
- ✓Printable PDF download
Alaska Medicare physician rate (2026)
+21.1% vs nationalSingle statewide locality.
What the whole procedure costs
The office rate above is what an imaging center, lab or office is paid for the whole test. In a hospital, the facility bills its own fee and the physician bills only the reading. These are 2026 national Medicare amounts.
Medicare may pay the facility separately for this code or package it into another service on the same day, so treat the facility share as an upper bound. For a test like this the physician in a hospital bills only the reading (the professional component); outside a hospital one global fee covers the whole test, shown in the office rate above. Medicare allowed amounts are not what an uninsured patient is charged, and not a quote. Private plans typically allow more.
Your ZIP in Alaska
Look up your ZIP code to see Alaska's adjusted rates, whether you are in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, the Mat-Su Valley, or a fly-in community off the road system.
What pathology exam of biopsy tissue costs at hospitals near you
Everything above is a national average. The hospital you pick in Alaska moves the bill more than anything else you control.
Rates for your ZIP, 5 named hospitals with CMS ratings, the add-on codes, and the scheduler script.
For example 99501.
One-off payment, no account and no subscription. You get a private link and an email. No medical records and no insurance card, ever.
What these numbers are
Every figure on this page is a 2026 Medicare allowed amount: the physician line comes from the Physician Fee Schedule adjusted by geographic practice-cost indices, and the facility totals come from the CMS hospital outpatient (OPPS) and ambulatory surgery center rates. None of them is a hospital chargemaster price, your insurer's contracted rate, or a quote. Anesthesia, pathology, imaging reads and follow-up care are billed under their own codes when they apply, and an inpatient stay is paid a different way again. In Alaska the office and hospital physician lines for this CPT differ by $37.17.
National vs Alaska
Where Alaska ranks for this CPT
Pathology Exam of Biopsy Tissue and how Alaska is priced
Alaska stands apart in the Medicare fee schedule: it is a single statewide locality, but federal law sets a permanent 1.5 floor on its physician work adjustment, the highest geographic treatment in the country. Combined with elevated practice expense indices that reflect the real cost of running a clinic in a remote state, Alaska's Medicare-approved amounts are consistently the highest of any state. Every community from Anchorage to the smallest bush village prices off the same locality, so the premium applies statewide rather than only in the cities.
Anchorage holds most of the state's specialists, and Fairbanks and Juneau add regional capacity, but many Alaskans still fly to Anchorage or even Seattle for complex procedures. Travel and lodging can rival the medical bill itself for residents of remote communities, which makes planning ahead unusually important here. Tribal health facilities also play a large role in care delivery across much of the state.
This procedure: CPT 88305 covers a pathologist examining tissue from a biopsy or minor surgery under a microscope: a skin biopsy, a polyp removed during a colonoscopy, or a breast or prostate core, for example. The lab processes the tissue into stained glass slides, and a pathologist, often a dermatopathologist for skin samples, reads them and writes the diagnosis report. It is one of the most frequently billed pathology codes, and it is billed per specimen, so several biopsies from one procedure often produce several charges.
What Is Pathology Exam of Biopsy Tissue?
CPT 88305 covers a pathologist examining tissue from a biopsy or minor surgery under a microscope: a skin biopsy, a polyp removed during a colonoscopy, or a breast or prostate core, for example. The lab processes the tissue into stained glass slides, and a pathologist, often a dermatopathologist for skin samples, reads them and writes the diagnosis report. It is one of the most frequently billed pathology codes, and it is billed per specimen, so several biopsies from one procedure often produce several charges.
What Affects the Cost
- –Each separately submitted specimen is billed as its own unit, so three polyps sent in three containers can mean three charges.
- –Special stains or immunohistochemistry, used when the diagnosis is not clear on routine slides, are billed with additional codes such as 88312 or 88342.
- –An independent lab usually bills one global fee, while a hospital lab bills the tissue processing on its own claim and the pathologist bills the reading.
- –Out-of-network lab bills are a common surprise, because patients rarely choose the lab that receives their biopsy.
- –An outside second opinion on the slides is billed with separate consultation codes.
Questions to Ask Before Booking
- 1.Which lab will the tissue go to, and is it in my network?
- 2.How many specimens will be sent, and will each one be billed?
- 3.Will special stains or extra tests be run, and would you tell me first?
- 4.Is a dermatopathologist or other subspecialist reading the slides, and are they in network?
- 5.If I get a bill from a lab I did not choose, who do I contact to have it reprocessed?
Other featured procedures in Alaska
Pathology Exam of Biopsy Tissue in other states
Pathology Exam of Biopsy Tissue in Alaska: questions
Under 2026 Medicare rates, a pathology exam of biopsy tissue costs up to about $88 in total at a hospital outpatient department, counting both the physician and the facility (national rates). Outside a hospital, at an independent imaging center, lab or office, Medicare's full rate in Alaska averages $85. Alaska is a single Medicare locality, so the physician rate is the same statewide.
Not on the physician fee schedule. Alaska uses one locality, so the Medicare physician rate is the same from one end of the state to the other. What still changes is site of service (office vs hospital) and any facility fee the hospital bills on its own claim.
After the Part B deductible, coinsurance is usually 20% of the allowed amount: about $17 for the office physician line or $10 for the hospital physician line in Alaska. Medigap may cover that 20%. This is not the hospital facility fee.
It depends on where the test is done. At an independent imaging center, lab or office, $84.96 is Medicare's full rate in Alaska, covering the test and the reading. In a hospital outpatient department the physician is paid only for the reading (about $47.79) and the hospital is paid separately, which brings the national total to up to about $88. Alaska ranks #51 of 51 states on the non-hospital rate (21% above the national office rate of $70.14).