How much does Medicare pay for CPT 11044?

Medicare allowed an average of $273.61 per service and paid $218.46 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $657.63, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 11044?

Removal of bone, 20.0 sq cm or less. It was billed 55,979 times to 15,312 Medicare beneficiaries by 576 providers in 2024.

Does 11044 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $316.15 in an office setting and $216.05 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 11044 most?

General Surgery, with 13,398 services from 111 clinicians. Next are Family Practice, Nurse Practitioner, Podiatry.

CPT 11044

Removal of bone, 20.0 sq cm or less

$273.61Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 55,979 services

Providers submitted

$657.63

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$273.61

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$218.46

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $657.63 for this code and Medicare allowed $273.61 — 2.4× 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 $218.46 (80%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $316.15
Hospital / facility: $216.05

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. 32,189 services were billed in an office setting and 23,790 in a facility.

Services: 55,979
Beneficiaries: 15,312
Providers billing it: 576
Total allowed: $15,316,414

What Medicare pays for CPT 11044

Across 55,979 services billed by 576 providers to 15,312 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $273.61 per service. That is 3.7 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 11044

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
General Surgery	13,398	3,520	$296.43	111
Family Practice	8,652	3,102	$283.60	96
Nurse Practitioner	6,734	1,604	$206.36	79
Podiatry	5,452	1,981	$256.29	104
Physician Assistant	4,665	959	$253.68	34
General Practice	3,923	827	$304.73	17
Internal Medicine	3,404	731	$306.01	27
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	2,866	870	$244.40	34
Anesthesiology	1,404	23	$260.46	1
Emergency Medicine	1,135	237	$328.69	6
Orthopedic Surgery	646	231	$250.45	11
Otolaryngology	631	86	$323.32	2
Vascular Surgery	595	226	$232.47	14
Obstetrics & Gynecology	502	161	$330.41	6
Thoracic Surgery	323	76	$331.28	4

11044 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
California	13,790	$297.64	$212.03	109
Florida	11,568	$256.06	$194.39	119
Texas	6,677	$277.19	$217.79	61
New York	4,209	$295.50	$198.69	28
Maryland	2,456	$310.99	$216.08	20
Georgia	2,234	$234.95	$189.88	14
Mississippi	1,811	$279.68	$229.14	14
North Carolina	1,805	$187.88	$159.33	21
Pennsylvania	1,234	$310.35	$228.40	10
New Jersey	1,229	$266.84	$191.54	15
Virginia	804	$270.71	$202.72	8
Louisiana	760	$221.06	$184.03	15
Alabama	720	$256.80	$212.68	8
Arizona	699	$287.27	$226.19	6
Ohio	680	$285.50	$217.19	7
Indiana	541	$293.36	$226.89	5
South Carolina	538	$219.93	$177.62	14
Massachusetts	426	$273.72	$206.42	8
Illinois	412	$256.52	$188.67	14
Connecticut	390	$246.14	$179.56	6
District of Columbia	307	$258.39	$190.44	7
Oklahoma	276	$218.66	$179.56	8
New Mexico	262	$306.69	$236.28	5
Kentucky	260	$242.26	$195.57	6
Delaware	219	$312.45	$226.05	3
West Virginia	208	$241.05	$180.80	6
Wisconsin	179	$274.30	$221.37	2
Minnesota	178	$207.24	$171.35	2
Arkansas	176	$208.81	$179.21	5
Tennessee	160	$230.60	$189.83	6
Michigan	152	$241.40	$187.01	4
Missouri	129	$199.55	$163.13	5
Washington	93	$296.76	$216.06	3
Colorado	85	$267.65	$209.04	2
Northern Mariana Islands	61	$263.20	$220.10	1
Kansas	50	$180.21	$155.15	2
Montana	46	$221.39	$170.69	1
Utah	46	$315.28	$242.52	2
Oregon	42	$310.32	$241.24	1
Idaho	27	$171.65	$148.63	1
South Dakota	21	$192.04	$162.50	1
Nevada	19	$200.50	$174.77	1

Related codes

11042Removal of skin and tissue$84.31
11056Removal of noncancer thickened skin growth$79.85
11055Removal of noncancer thickened skin growth$66.64
11043Removal of muscle and/or tissue$193.00
11045Removal of skin and tissue$28.86
11057Removal of noncancer thickened skin growth$87.46
11046Removal of muscle and/or tissue$62.70
11047Removal of bone$109.02
11000Removal of inflamed or infected skin$50.90

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.