How much does Medicare pay for CPT 10120?

Medicare allowed an average of $135.43 per service and paid $103.39 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $231.69, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 10120?

Removal of foreign body from tissue, accessed beneath the skin, simple. It was billed 3,335 times to 2,435 Medicare beneficiaries by 91 providers in 2024.

Does 10120 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $135.93 in an office setting and $98.39 in a facility. The office rate is generally higher because the practice supplies the room, staff and equipment out of that single payment; in a hospital those are billed separately by the facility.

Which specialty bills 10120 most?

Podiatry, with 1,916 services from 51 clinicians. Next are Oral Surgery (Dentist only), Dermatology, Dentist.

CPT 10120

Removal of foreign body from tissue, accessed beneath the skin, simple

$135.43Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 3,335 services

Providers submitted

$231.69

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$135.43

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$103.39

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $231.69 for this code and Medicare allowed $135.43 — 1.7× less. That gap is normal and means nothing on its own: Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of what is billed, so the submitted figure describes a hospital chargemaster, not a price anyone paid. Of the allowed amount Medicare paid $103.39 (76%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $135.93
Hospital / facility: $98.39

The office rate is higher because the practice supplies the room, staff and equipment out of that payment. In a hospital the facility bills those separately, so the clinician's share is smaller — the total cost to Medicare is usually higher, not lower. 3,290 services were billed in an office setting and 45 in a facility.

Services: 3,335
Beneficiaries: 2,435
Providers billing it: 91
Total allowed: $451,659

What Medicare pays for CPT 10120

Across 3,335 services billed by 91 providers to 2,435 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $135.43 per service. That is 1.4 services per beneficiary, so this is a code patients typically receive more than once. The allowed amount is the figure that matters: it is what Medicare and the patient together owe, set by the fee schedule and adjusted for local practice costs. What a provider chose to submit has no bearing on it.

Who bills 10120

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Podiatry	1,916	1,596	$147.70	51
Oral Surgery (Dentist only)	440	199	$80.06	10
Dermatology	413	218	$149.04	10
Dentist	151	73	$80.03	3
Family Practice	121	115	$162.26	5
Physician Assistant	59	51	$125.37	3
Internal Medicine	55	54	$173.68	1
Maxillofacial Surgery	45	23	$81.31	1
Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery	38	26	$129.59	1
Emergency Medicine	29	27	$168.25	2
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	25	16	$149.10	1
Orthopedic Surgery	19	14	$136.44	1
Ophthalmology	12	11	$159.85	1
Nurse Practitioner	12	12	$125.94	1

10120 reimbursement by state

Two different numbers. Allowed is what Medicare actually allowed in that state, which includes the local practice-cost adjustment. Standardized strips that geographic adjustment out of the payment, so it is the column to use when comparing states — a difference there reflects how the code was billed, not what it costs to run a practice locally.

State	Services	Allowed	Standardized pmt	Providers
Florida	904	$143.48	$112.30	14
New York	778	$158.07	$110.48	23
California	596	$106.62	$71.37	20
Arizona	250	$77.94	$62.14	4
Illinois	235	$146.62	$114.05	4
Pennsylvania	149	$138.58	$107.05	6
Maryland	109	$168.55	$115.01	3
New Jersey	103	$150.41	$111.54	5
Texas	31	$131.40	$93.00	2
Michigan	29	$137.43	$113.15	1
Colorado	26	$77.58	$58.68	1
Rhode Island	24	$120.38	$74.86	1
Oklahoma	19	$136.44	$102.42	1
Tennessee	18	$133.62	$105.02	1
New Mexico	16	$144.35	$112.72	1
Ohio	14	$148.91	$103.88	1
North Carolina	12	$125.94	$93.85	1
South Carolina	11	$141.12	$108.16	1
Virginia	11	$140.31	$103.35	1

Related codes

10140Drainage of blood or fluid accumulation$159.34
10160Aspiration of abscess$112.33

Billing this code is not the same as earning it

An allowed amount is revenue to a practice, not income to a clinician. It funds staff, premises, equipment and supplies before anyone is paid. What clinicians actually earn is published separately by the Department of Labor, and what industry pays them is published separately again by CMS — this site carries both.

What doctors are paid →·Look up a clinician →·All procedure codes →

Where this comes from. CMS Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners, by Provider and Service, 2024. It covers fee-for-service Original Medicare Part B only — not Medicare Advantage, not Medicaid, and not commercial insurance, which typically pays more for the same code.

How it is averaged. CMS publishes one average per provider per code. Every figure here is re-weighted by the number of services, so a clinician who billed the code 4,000 times counts 4,000 times more than one who billed it twice. CMS also suppresses any provider-code pair with fewer than 11 beneficiaries, so low-volume practice is missing from these totals by design.