How Much Does a Pathology Exam of Biopsy Tissue Cost in Hawaii?
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 Hawaii averages $70.
- ✓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
Hawaii Medicare physician rate (2026)
+0.1% 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 Hawaii
Enter your ZIP code for Hawaii figures, whether you live on Oahu, in Hilo or Kona on the Big Island, or on Maui or Kauai where a Honolulu trip is often part of the plan.
What pathology exam of biopsy tissue costs at hospitals near you
Everything above is a national average. The hospital you pick in Hawaii 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 96701.
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 Hawaii the office and hospital physician lines for this CPT differ by $35.11.
National vs Hawaii
Where Hawaii ranks for this CPT
Pathology Exam of Biopsy Tissue and how Hawaii is priced
Hawaii is priced through a single locality with geographic adjustments well above the mainland norm, driven largely by the practice expense side: rent, staff wages, and supplies all cost more across the islands. Unlike Alaska, Hawaii does not carry a special statutory floor, but its indices still place it among the higher-cost states in the fee schedule. Every island shares the same locality, so Honolulu and Hilo publish the same Medicare-approved amounts. The real variable for residents is which island the care is on, not the rate itself.
Oahu holds the bulk of Hawaii's hospital capacity and nearly all of its subspecialty care, so neighbor island residents routinely fly to Honolulu for procedures, adding airfare and hotel costs to the medical bill. A small number of systems dominate the market, and physician recruitment to the islands is a chronic challenge. For complex or rare conditions, some patients travel on to the mainland West Coast.
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 Hawaii
Pathology Exam of Biopsy Tissue in other states
Pathology Exam of Biopsy Tissue in Hawaii: 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 Hawaii averages $70. Hawaii is a single Medicare locality, so the physician rate is the same statewide.
Not on the physician fee schedule. Hawaii 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 $14 for the office physician line or $7 for the hospital physician line in Hawaii. 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, $70.18 is Medicare's full rate in Hawaii, covering the test and the reading. In a hospital outpatient department the physician is paid only for the reading (about $35.07) and the hospital is paid separately, which brings the national total to up to about $88. Hawaii ranks #36 of 51 states on the non-hospital rate (within 2% of the national office rate of $70.14).