How much does Medicare pay for CPT 11601?

Medicare allowed an average of $150.65 per service and paid $116.46 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $461.32, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 11601?

Removal of cancer skin growth of body, arms, or legs, 0.6-1.0 cm. It was billed 5,450 times to 4,865 Medicare beneficiaries by 226 providers in 2024.

Does 11601 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $156.70 in an office setting and $81.25 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 11601 most?

Dermatology, with 4,214 services from 171 clinicians. Next are Physician Assistant, Nurse Practitioner, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

CPT 11601

Removal of cancer skin growth of body, arms, or legs, 0.6-1.0 cm

$150.65Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 5,450 services

Providers submitted

$461.32

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$150.65

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$116.46

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $461.32 for this code and Medicare allowed $150.65 — 3.1× 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 $116.46 (77%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $156.70
Hospital / facility: $81.25

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. 5,013 services were billed in an office setting and 437 in a facility.

Services: 5,450
Beneficiaries: 4,865
Providers billing it: 226
Total allowed: $821,043

What Medicare pays for CPT 11601

Across 5,450 services billed by 226 providers to 4,865 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $150.65 per service. 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 11601

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Dermatology	4,214	3,785	$161.82	171
Physician Assistant	325	275	$97.29	16
Nurse Practitioner	220	195	$119.91	10
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	212	182	$105.32	9
Ambulatory Surgical Center	140	115	$74.90	4
General Surgery	136	123	$113.57	4
Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery	80	75	$150.52	5
Family Practice	46	40	$181.68	2
Internal Medicine	28	27	$108.14	2
General Practice	25	24	$164.57	2
Surgical Oncology	24	24	$221.66	1

11601 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	1,057	$154.28	$117.57	34
California	772	$171.54	$115.14	33
Georgia	446	$105.67	$86.17	13
Maryland	270	$190.76	$134.93	10
Indiana	197	$145.04	$116.47	5
Tennessee	192	$137.57	$111.38	9
Virginia	188	$159.97	$123.16	9
New York	181	$148.71	$111.68	10
Massachusetts	158	$147.20	$107.45	6
North Carolina	153	$140.17	$116.35	6
West Virginia	139	$107.58	$87.23	7
Texas	124	$125.98	$100.60	7
Arkansas	122	$145.74	$121.62	4
Arizona	115	$145.16	$118.12	6
Hawaii	111	$201.40	$145.37	5
Alabama	89	$182.66	$153.17	4
South Carolina	83	$144.40	$116.18	4
Mississippi	78	$128.69	$116.60	4
Pennsylvania	75	$149.46	$114.46	5
Kentucky	75	$121.19	$109.54	3
Louisiana	69	$149.33	$129.16	3
New Jersey	65	$191.89	$140.28	3
Oregon	62	$131.74	$104.39	4
Kansas	61	$101.88	$86.67	4
Illinois	60	$133.36	$100.28	4
Missouri	53	$156.59	$128.40	3
Utah	53	$182.56	$160.38	1
Delaware	49	$197.58	$154.83	2
Washington	45	$133.83	$101.48	3
South Dakota	45	$96.52	$80.40	2
Ohio	43	$167.32	$135.50	2
Connecticut	36	$227.57	$158.76	1
New Mexico	32	$177.70	$145.73	2
Oklahoma	28	$187.78	$148.07	1
Nevada	27	$90.43	$76.28	1
Iowa	23	$89.67	$76.01	1
Montana	20	$208.59	$157.37	1
North Dakota	16	$97.90	$79.85	1
Michigan	13	$118.12	$99.35	1
Colorado	13	$123.40	$89.46	1
Vermont	12	$110.08	$88.25	1

Related codes

11602Removal of cancer skin growth of body$124.23
11603Removal of cancer skin growth of body$145.33
11642Removal of cancer skin growth of face$146.34
11622Removal of cancer skin growth of scalp$140.18
11604Removal of cancer skin growth of body$207.87
11606Removal of cancer skin growth of body$351.85
11643Removal of cancer skin growth of face$186.77
11641Removal of cancer skin growth of face$146.08
11623Removal of cancer skin growth of scalp$165.51
11644Removal of cancer skin growth of face$292.35
11646Removal of cancer skin growth of face$427.86
11621Removal of cancer skin growth of scalp$153.64

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.