How much does Medicare pay for CPT 15120?

Medicare allowed an average of $780.08 per service and paid $615.11 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $2396.11, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

Does 15120 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $799.28 in an office setting and $757.62 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 15120 most?

Dermatology, with 593 services from 20 clinicians. Next are Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Otolaryngology, Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery.

CPT 15120

Partial thickness self skin graft to face, scalp, eyelids, mouth, neck, ears, around eyes, genitals, hands, feet, fingers, or toes, 100.0 sq cm or 1% body area for infants and children, or less

$780.08Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 1,302 services

Providers submitted

$2396.11

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$780.08

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$615.11

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $2396.11 for this code and Medicare allowed $780.08 — 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 $615.11 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $799.28
Hospital / facility: $757.62

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. 702 services were billed in an office setting and 600 in a facility.

Services: 1,302
Beneficiaries: 1,226
Providers billing it: 63
Total allowed: $1,015,664

What Medicare pays for CPT 15120

Across 1,302 services billed by 63 providers to 1,226 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $780.08 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 15120

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Dermatology	593	539	$807.34	20
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	173	167	$681.43	10
Otolaryngology	170	166	$483.91	12
Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery	116	113	$681.84	5
Ambulatory Surgical Center	110	109	$1665.46	7
General Surgery	78	75	$481.60	5
Surgical Oncology	37	34	$739.49	2
Critical Care (Intensivists)	14	12	$397.04	1
Maxillofacial Surgery	11	11	$362.16	1

15120 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	362	$833.60	$640.96	8
California	144	$623.71	$477.20	8
Ohio	84	$781.64	$634.74	4
Texas	81	$728.10	$552.51	4
Indiana	64	$944.98	$782.03	4
Georgia	63	$483.04	$395.23	4
Arkansas	60	$826.62	$784.26	4
New Jersey	57	$704.41	$512.08	3
Massachusetts	51	$532.00	$390.57	4
Alabama	47	$668.25	$575.07	3
Maryland	42	$869.86	$657.38	2
Delaware	35	$1309.53	$1017.71	2
South Carolina	30	$806.83	$656.36	1
Mississippi	27	$885.38	$807.32	2
North Carolina	26	$659.45	$535.95	1
Kansas	24	$1194.07	$987.78	2
Tennessee	21	$705.55	$652.38	1
Washington	16	$458.71	$293.40	1
Missouri	16	$1752.23	$1458.90	1
Nevada	15	$824.86	$662.99	1
Nebraska	14	$505.87	$442.18	1
New York	12	$544.77	$447.52	1
Virginia	11	$708.21	$550.89	1

Related codes

15101Partial thickness self skin graft of trunk$105.68
15100Partial thickness self skin graft to trunk$636.52

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.