How much does Medicare pay for CPT 15003?

Medicare allowed an average of $37.11 per service and paid $29.63 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $277.91, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 15003?

Preparation of skin graft site of trunk, arms, or legs, each additional 100.0 sq cm or 1% body area for infants and children, or less. It was billed 19,046 times to 1,520 Medicare beneficiaries by 82 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 15003 most?

General Surgery, with 11,257 services from 43 clinicians. Next are Physician Assistant, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Critical Care (Intensivists).

CPT 15003

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

$37.11Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 19,046 services

Providers submitted

$277.91

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$37.11

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$29.63

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $277.91 for this code and Medicare allowed $37.11 — 7.5× 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 $29.63 (80%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 19,046
Beneficiaries: 1,520
Providers billing it: 82
Total allowed: $706,797

What Medicare pays for CPT 15003

Across 19,046 services billed by 82 providers to 1,520 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $37.11 per service. That is 12.5 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 15003

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
General Surgery	11,257	739	$43.13	43
Physician Assistant	3,178	260	$6.09	12
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	3,132	446	$44.25	24
Critical Care (Intensivists)	1,350	64	$46.34	2
Nurse Practitioner	129	11	$6.06	1

15003 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
Georgia	6,552	$27.68	$21.75	18
Florida	1,781	$47.74	$34.95	4
California	1,609	$45.46	$34.62	7
Nevada	1,096	$25.30	$20.59	3
Arizona	904	$43.18	$34.91	7
Mississippi	730	$40.74	$34.94	1
Tennessee	617	$39.90	$34.87	4
New York	617	$46.35	$35.67	6
North Carolina	514	$40.70	$34.67	3
Alabama	500	$39.50	$34.67	1
Colorado	491	$42.61	$34.26	3
Nebraska	467	$39.04	$34.90	1
Indiana	374	$39.68	$34.75	1
Texas	344	$42.85	$34.94	2
District of Columbia	338	$50.30	$34.82	3
Massachusetts	338	$46.65	$34.94	2
Virginia	290	$42.82	$34.94	3
Ohio	275	$42.00	$34.83	2
Pennsylvania	234	$44.17	$34.94	2
Oklahoma	204	$41.39	$34.87	2
Kansas	195	$40.28	$34.96	1
Maryland	172	$47.08	$34.91	2
Illinois	143	$50.16	$34.84	1
Oregon	125	$43.47	$34.86	1
Maine	91	$41.87	$34.86	1
Michigan	45	$5.82	$4.76	1

Related codes

15004Preparation of skin graft site of face$298.29
15002Preparation of skin graft site of trunk$270.10

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.