How much does Medicare pay for CPT 15273?

Medicare allowed an average of $211.10 per service and paid $166.44 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $778.26, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 15273?

Skin substitute graft to wound 100.0 sq cm or more of trunk, arms, or legs, 100.0 sq cm or 1% body area for infants and children, or less. It was billed 2,909 times to 1,218 Medicare beneficiaries by 60 providers in 2024.

Does 15273 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $275.10 in an office setting and $143.44 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 15273 most?

General Surgery, with 880 services from 21 clinicians. Next are Nurse Practitioner, Family Practice, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

CPT 15273

Skin substitute graft to wound 100.0 sq cm or more of trunk, arms, or legs, 100.0 sq cm or 1% body area for infants and children, or less

$211.10Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 2,909 services

Providers submitted

$778.26

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$211.10

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$166.44

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $778.26 for this code and Medicare allowed $211.10 — 3.7× 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 $166.44 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $275.10
Hospital / facility: $143.44

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. 1,495 services were billed in an office setting and 1,414 in a facility.

Services: 2,909
Beneficiaries: 1,218
Providers billing it: 60
Total allowed: $614,090

What Medicare pays for CPT 15273

Across 2,909 services billed by 60 providers to 1,218 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $211.10 per service. That is 2.4 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 15273

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
General Surgery	880	421	$201.66	21
Nurse Practitioner	659	197	$251.27	11
Family Practice	354	45	$296.28	3
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	293	223	$133.89	14
Orthopedic Surgery	245	171	$96.35	4
Dermatology	168	52	$163.03	1
Physician Assistant	129	36	$257.66	3
Critical Care (Intensivists)	72	45	$149.38	1
Pediatric Medicine	59	16	$254.08	1
General Practice	50	12	$339.28	1

15273 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
Arizona	516	$253.49	$197.70	9
California	391	$269.33	$202.03	7
Oklahoma	347	$255.30	$218.87	4
Georgia	274	$160.20	$126.51	6
Florida	267	$241.91	$178.86	6
Kansas	258	$192.56	$167.36	3
Texas	203	$95.03	$75.59	1
Colorado	152	$260.14	$199.13	3
Nevada	103	$160.05	$129.02	3
New York	88	$179.62	$119.97	3
Tennessee	69	$117.20	$97.36	4
North Carolina	68	$120.68	$100.99	4
Virginia	39	$146.26	$120.19	2
Mississippi	35	$138.84	$118.68	1
Maryland	33	$132.27	$98.35	1
Nebraska	31	$152.61	$134.16	1
New Jersey	19	$109.13	$79.67	1
Indiana	16	$130.50	$108.17	1

Related codes

15271Application of skin substitute graft to wound of trunk$128.42
15275Application of skin substitute graft to wound of face$129.23
15260Full thickness skin graft to nose$928.72
15272Application of skin substitute graft to wound of trunk$22.96
15274Skin substitute graft to wound 100.0 sq cm or more of trunk$48.85
15240Full thickness skin graft to forehead$841.38
15220Full thickness skin graft to scalp$669.90
15276Application of skin substitute graft to wound of face$29.63

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.