How much does Medicare pay for CPT 11732?

Medicare allowed an average of $32.18 per service and paid $24.81 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $77.57, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 11732?

Simple separation of fingernail or toenail from nail bed, each additional nail. It was billed 12,599 times to 9,196 Medicare beneficiaries by 212 providers in 2024.

Does 11732 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $32.84 in an office setting and $16.80 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 11732 most?

Podiatry, with 11,284 services from 198 clinicians. Next are Nurse Practitioner, Orthopedic Surgery, Family Practice.

CPT 11732

Simple separation of fingernail or toenail from nail bed, each additional nail

$32.18Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 12,599 services

Providers submitted

$77.57

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$32.18

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$24.81

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $77.57 for this code and Medicare allowed $32.18 — 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 $24.81 (77%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $32.84
Hospital / facility: $16.80

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. 12,085 services were billed in an office setting and 514 in a facility.

Services: 12,599
Beneficiaries: 9,196
Providers billing it: 212
Total allowed: $405,436

What Medicare pays for CPT 11732

Across 12,599 services billed by 212 providers to 9,196 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $32.18 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 11732

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Podiatry	11,284	8,315	$32.99	198
Nurse Practitioner	978	593	$25.82	11
Orthopedic Surgery	277	244	$21.82	1
Family Practice	41	28	$29.42	1
Dermatology	19	16	$36.61	1

11732 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	2,289	$33.56	$23.81	34
New York	1,402	$37.59	$25.67	26
Pennsylvania	1,101	$32.20	$24.40	17
Illinois	1,092	$32.27	$24.74	19
Michigan	985	$33.59	$25.21	12
Florida	863	$32.92	$25.17	18
New Jersey	817	$35.50	$25.02	10
Georgia	702	$29.63	$22.48	7
Tennessee	418	$25.50	$21.96	6
Kansas	282	$25.65	$19.73	1
Arizona	256	$30.19	$24.09	5
Indiana	248	$30.19	$24.81	7
Alabama	199	$24.35	$22.05	5
Missouri	182	$18.48	$14.28	2
Nebraska	179	$28.45	$22.41	2
Louisiana	164	$28.21	$23.97	2
Nevada	158	$28.13	$22.02	3
Oklahoma	152	$29.95	$25.15	3
South Carolina	149	$27.40	$23.01	4
Texas	145	$31.23	$24.83	4
Ohio	131	$31.18	$23.91	5
Arkansas	119	$29.07	$24.68	1
Washington	118	$32.97	$25.01	2
Utah	80	$29.20	$24.32	3
Virginia	70	$29.59	$24.26	3
Maryland	63	$32.03	$24.93	3
Massachusetts	55	$33.46	$25.74	1
Connecticut	49	$34.54	$24.08	1
Mississippi	45	$28.08	$24.40	2
North Carolina	32	$28.54	$25.07	1
Colorado	28	$30.85	$25.73	1
Alaska	15	$38.93	$25.41	1
Wisconsin	11	$28.80	$23.51	1

Related codes

11721Removal of fingernails or toenails$42.83
11720Removal of fingernails or toenails$31.70
11719Trimming of fingernails or toenails$10.40
11730Simple separation of fingernail or toenail from nail bed$108.98
11750Permanent removal fingernail or toenail$140.90
11755Biopsy of fingernail or toenail$106.95
11765Removal of skin of fingernail or toenail$143.69
11740Removal of blood accumulation under fingernail or toenail$40.74
11760Repair of fingernail or toenail bed$122.75

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.