How much does Medicare pay for CPT 15002?

Medicare allowed an average of $270.10 per service and paid $214.63 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $1180.43, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 15002?

Preparation of skin graft site of trunk, arms, or legs, 100.0 sq cm or 1% body area for infants and children, or less. It was billed 15,715 times to 9,209 Medicare beneficiaries by 325 providers in 2024.

Does 15002 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $316.29 in an office setting and $240.27 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 15002 most?

Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, with 4,558 services from 115 clinicians. Next are Nurse Practitioner, General Surgery, Physician Assistant.

CPT 15002

Preparation of skin graft site of trunk, arms, or legs, 100.0 sq cm or 1% body area for infants and children, or less

$270.10Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 15,715 services

Providers submitted

$1180.43

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$270.10

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$214.63

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $1180.43 for this code and Medicare allowed $270.10 — 4.4× 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 $214.63 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $316.29
Hospital / facility: $240.27

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. 6,166 services were billed in an office setting and 9,549 in a facility.

Services: 15,715
Beneficiaries: 9,209
Providers billing it: 325
Total allowed: $4,244,622

What Medicare pays for CPT 15002

Across 15,715 services billed by 325 providers to 9,209 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $270.10 per service. That is 1.7 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 15002

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	4,558	3,468	$244.87	115
Nurse Practitioner	3,047	851	$269.30	45
General Surgery	2,690	1,651	$228.89	67
Physician Assistant	1,119	890	$63.71	26
Ambulatory Surgical Center	1,070	831	$593.44	7
Dermatology	828	275	$369.44	9
Family Practice	544	109	$307.66	5
Podiatry	403	238	$288.76	14
Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine	253	108	$271.77	3
Critical Care (Intensivists)	207	128	$221.20	2
Orthopedic Surgery	168	153	$230.08	5
Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery	146	124	$372.93	3
Infectious Disease	132	22	$230.94	2
Internal Medicine	110	84	$289.37	5
General Practice	99	43	$388.38	2

15002 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	2,214	$271.65	$196.53	41
Arizona	1,802	$322.83	$257.43	24
Florida	1,641	$276.50	$212.52	30
Georgia	1,566	$208.73	$169.63	33
Texas	1,518	$268.49	$215.42	29
New York	1,051	$324.27	$218.41	25
Nevada	530	$210.80	$169.68	9
New Jersey	499	$298.91	$216.75	13
Maryland	467	$371.37	$315.45	9
Delaware	407	$425.44	$333.34	3
Oklahoma	367	$292.35	$251.90	4
Virginia	350	$241.52	$188.81	9
Michigan	268	$46.25	$37.02	3
Pennsylvania	263	$267.68	$208.74	8
Kentucky	238	$273.17	$232.65	3
Tennessee	233	$184.57	$162.48	9
Nebraska	226	$191.48	$166.91	4
Colorado	224	$235.28	$184.37	9
Washington	224	$248.53	$183.62	5
Massachusetts	199	$282.08	$202.25	5
Mississippi	144	$214.12	$186.33	4
Minnesota	135	$277.18	$222.71	3
District of Columbia	134	$262.34	$182.10	7
Indiana	106	$173.09	$150.04	2
Ohio	102	$217.91	$169.87	4
Illinois	92	$234.94	$169.23	4
Arkansas	87	$254.43	$228.36	1
New Mexico	85	$272.73	$222.43	1
North Carolina	80	$200.61	$169.86	3
South Carolina	79	$221.23	$180.96	3
Idaho	65	$232.49	$207.31	2
Louisiana	51	$202.39	$170.81	3
Guam	49	$316.71	$263.48	1
Kansas	39	$197.03	$169.85	2
Oregon	32	$215.41	$169.81	2
Connecticut	31	$361.12	$262.15	1
Alabama	30	$194.12	$169.49	1
ZZ	17	$196.54	$169.93	1
Missouri	16	$209.78	$169.72	1
Iowa	15	$194.96	$170.23	1
Wisconsin	14	$196.37	$170.01	1
Maine	14	$206.60	$169.82	1
Utah	11	$207.20	$170.16	1

Related codes

15004Preparation of skin graft site of face$298.29
15003Preparation of skin graft site of trunk$37.11

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.