Top 10 Most Common Clinical Laboratory Facility Types:2026

Physician Office is the most common clinical laboratory facility type in CMS’s September 2026 report: 116,814 registered laboratories, representing 38.77% of the reported population. Other ranks second and Pharmacy third.

Use this ranking to choose a testing setting to research, then narrow it by territory and certificate type. For a product needing non-waived testing, starting with every physician-office laboratory would overstate the relevant certificate population. The breakdown below shows the difference.

Table of Contents

• The ranking
• What facility type tells you
• Worked analysis: narrow the physician-office segment
  • What this changes for a supplier
  • Define eligibility before collecting candidates
• Create a focused laboratory export in QOPE
• Method and limitations
  • What the ranking cannot answer
• Sources

The ranking

Source: CMS laboratory statistics, September 2026, page 5. The denominator is 301,284 registered laboratories, including CLIA-exempt and non-exempt laboratories.

Together, these categories account for 249,449 registrations, or 82.80% of the population, calculated from the counts. Community Clinic leads the next category, End Stage Renal Disease Dialysis, by only 41 registrations. A top-ten cutoff is therefore a presentation choice, not evidence of a commercial boundary.

What facility type tells you

The CMS-116 application collects the testing setting separately from certificate type, ownership, and testing activity. Preserve those distinctions when segmenting records.

Retain “Other” records until supporting information permits a more specific classification. Excluding them silently would remove the second-largest category from the analysis.

Worked analysis: narrow the physician-office segment

Page 1 of the CMS report separates 114,313 non-exempt physician-office laboratories into four certificate categories:

The four counts sum to 114,313. Shares use this non-exempt denominator, not the 116,814 exempt-and-non-exempt facility total. Rounding produces a 99.99% sum.

What this changes for a supplier

For a waived-testing product, the 84,829 physician-office laboratories in the Waiver category provide a defined starting cohort. Other certificate categories may also perform waived testing, so this is not the entire eligible market.

For moderate- or high-complexity non-waived testing beyond the limited PPM pathway, Compliance and Accreditation provide a starting population of 13,361 non-exempt physician-office laboratories: 9,104 + 4,257. That is 11.69% of the 114,313 non-exempt total, before territory and testing-menu checks.

A Waiver certificate permits waived testing only; Provider Performed Microscopy Procedures permits specified microscopy procedures and waived testing. Compliance and Accreditation have broader permissions under the applicable conditions in the CMS-116 instructions.

Define eligibility before collecting candidates

Write one brief: “Find physician-office laboratories in [territory] whose certificate pathway and verified testing activity fit [product requirement].” Specify the testing and operational requirements before reviewing records.

Count laboratories when assessing technical coverage and purchasing organizations when planning accounts. A smaller relevant category can be a better starting population than a larger unrelated one; the ranking alone cannot establish the best sales opportunity.

Create a focused laboratory export in QOPE

Open QOPE Laboratories to create a state-level candidate CSV. For the waived-testing example, start with your target state + Physician Office + Waiver.

QOPE’s catalog documents these filters and lists Laboratories as a premium dataset on Pro and Teams. The following steps follow its table and export documentation:

1. Apply the State, Facility type, and Certificate type filters using the available values.
2. Record the freshness timestamp, filter selections, and filtered row count.
3. Open Export, choose CSV, and select the available identifier, name, location, facility-type, and certificate-type columns. Inspect the offered sample download first.
4. Check the export count. The documented cap is 1,000 rows per file; compare it with the filtered total before treating the file as complete.

If the result exceeds the cap, narrow it using a relevant additional filter, such as ownership type. For multiple files, retain each filter definition and check for gaps and overlaps before combining them.

Use three review outcomes: eligible when the requirements are supported, ineligible when evidence establishes a disqualifying condition, and unknown when evidence is insufficient. Record the evidence and review date. Report unreviewed records separately; a capped or selective review cannot establish a population-wide eligibility rate.

Evidence boundary: the ranking and calculations below were checked against CMS. The QOPE steps follow documentation, not a tested signed-in export; its retained-record population has not been reconciled to CMS. A dataset update timestamp alone does not establish the reporting date of every field.

Method and limitations

The 29 published facility counts sum to 301,284. We sorted them descending and retained the ten largest, including Other; there are no ties at the cutoff. Facility counts and individual shares are reproduced from CMS. Combined and certificate shares are calculated as count ÷ the stated denominator × 100, rounded to two decimals.

September 2026 is the report period, not an exact extraction day or annual average. No additional geographic filter or record-level deduplication was applied.

The numerical checks performed were:

These checks validate the transcription and arithmetic, not the underlying record population. CMS-116 permits qualifying multiple-location arrangements under one certificate, so registrations cannot establish buildings, purchasing accounts, or present operations and quality.

What the ranking cannot answer

It cannot rank test volume, unused capacity, revenue, or qualified customers. Those questions require comparable testing data or a record-level eligibility review. The 13,361 certificate-defined population is therefore a research starting point, not an addressable-market estimate.

Sources

• CMS laboratory statistics, September 2026: page 5 supplies facility counts and shares; page 1 supplies the non-exempt physician-office certificate breakdown.
• Form CMS-116 and instructions, March 2024 revision: facility classification, certificate type, ownership, testing information, and multiple-site provisions.
• QOPE dataset catalog: documented laboratory filters and dataset access.
• QOPE table guide and export guide: documented workflow and limits, reviewed October 7, 2026.

CMS may replace the report at the same URL. When reproducing this ranking, retain the dated source file and confirm that its report period is September 2026.