How much does Medicare pay for CPT 11602?

Medicare allowed an average of $124.23 per service and paid $97.81 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $530.93, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 11602?

Removal of cancer skin growth of body, arms, or legs, 1.1-2.0 cm. It was billed 202,492 times to 176,187 Medicare beneficiaries by 5,345 providers in 2024.

Does 11602 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $125.52 in an office setting and $83.86 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 11602 most?

Dermatology, with 148,532 services from 3,742 clinicians. Next are Physician Assistant, Nurse Practitioner, Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery.

CPT 11602

Removal of cancer skin growth of body, arms, or legs, 1.1-2.0 cm

$124.23Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 202,492 services

Providers submitted

$530.93

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$124.23

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$97.81

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $530.93 for this code and Medicare allowed $124.23 — 4.3× 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 $97.81 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $125.52
Hospital / facility: $83.86

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. 196,218 services were billed in an office setting and 6,274 in a facility.

Services: 202,492
Beneficiaries: 176,187
Providers billing it: 5,345
Total allowed: $25,155,581

What Medicare pays for CPT 11602

Across 202,492 services billed by 5,345 providers to 176,187 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $124.23 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 11602

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Dermatology	148,532	129,302	$128.47	3,742
Physician Assistant	28,514	24,923	$107.91	898
Nurse Practitioner	7,021	6,070	$108.65	234
Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery	6,956	6,231	$129.74	170
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	5,643	4,640	$119.33	147
Ambulatory Surgical Center	1,755	1,480	$79.65	39
General Surgery	1,203	1,060	$134.04	41
Family Practice	849	690	$131.58	20
Otolaryngology	623	523	$122.23	10
Internal Medicine	394	355	$118.98	16
Undefined Physician type	230	207	$118.87	5
General Practice	174	162	$135.30	4
Pathology	174	155	$118.76	4
Orthopedic Surgery	99	94	$117.85	2
Emergency Medicine	71	66	$111.86	2

11602 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	35,284	$126.35	$97.91	672
California	21,220	$143.70	$98.98	541
Texas	12,610	$121.53	$96.54	384
North Carolina	8,099	$117.67	$96.79	229
Arizona	8,049	$122.76	$97.35	190
South Carolina	7,287	$115.56	$95.25	128
Georgia	7,124	$120.84	$98.11	186
Pennsylvania	6,829	$123.55	$96.30	201
Illinois	6,766	$125.86	$95.55	171
Virginia	6,298	$130.22	$100.38	152
Ohio	5,559	$118.06	$97.39	162
Massachusetts	5,542	$129.47	$94.86	149
New York	4,484	$130.15	$93.87	143
Tennessee	4,126	$115.54	$98.59	127
Maryland	4,051	$134.33	$97.17	122
Alabama	4,021	$115.98	$100.67	80
Washington	3,920	$120.75	$90.11	131
New Jersey	3,559	$139.25	$97.74	113
Colorado	3,456	$123.11	$94.24	110
Michigan	3,433	$119.02	$96.09	124
Missouri	3,087	$112.01	$94.59	94
Indiana	2,804	$111.46	$93.78	74
Kansas	2,507	$108.48	$92.32	58
Arkansas	2,447	$111.56	$97.68	47
Wisconsin	2,401	$108.58	$87.31	85
Oregon	2,313	$120.17	$94.30	84
Mississippi	2,058	$112.16	$96.96	48
Iowa	1,974	$106.29	$88.64	51
Minnesota	1,856	$124.48	$94.24	76
Kentucky	1,816	$114.66	$98.00	49
Nevada	1,795	$120.48	$94.98	60
Louisiana	1,623	$117.88	$100.00	47
Oklahoma	1,517	$119.44	$100.38	41
Delaware	1,330	$116.78	$91.27	26
Idaho	1,232	$103.79	$87.95	50
Connecticut	1,232	$133.38	$96.01	40
Utah	1,022	$118.61	$96.79	38
New Hampshire	994	$111.84	$86.16	33
Hawaii	870	$156.78	$114.72	21
Nebraska	850	$116.77	$97.85	27
New Mexico	849	$120.15	$96.45	26
West Virginia	729	$111.16	$93.93	27
Montana	678	$116.72	$91.78	25
South Dakota	510	$96.52	$77.78	24
Wyoming	441	$108.10	$84.70	7
District of Columbia	418	$138.60	$97.45	11
Rhode Island	417	$126.84	$96.88	18
North Dakota	307	$97.18	$76.75	12
Maine	255	$112.61	$89.34	10
Vermont	160	$114.69	$89.51	9
Alaska	110	$136.74	$98.65	6
Puerto Rico	78	$120.08	$93.16	2
ZZ	41	$122.79	$95.79	1
U.S. Virgin Islands	36	$96.97	$75.55	2
Guam	18	$191.41	$183.88	1

Related codes

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
11601Removal of cancer skin growth of body$150.65
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.