How much does Medicare pay for CPT 15733?

Medicare allowed an average of $961.01 per service and paid $763.39 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $6110.89, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 15733?

Creation of flap graft to head and/or neck. It was billed 1,434 times to 1,263 Medicare beneficiaries by 66 providers in 2024.

Does 15733 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $1025.66 in an office setting and $957.94 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 15733 most?

Otolaryngology, with 514 services from 25 clinicians. Next are Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Ambulatory Surgical Center, Ophthalmology.

CPT 15733

Creation of flap graft to head and/or neck

$961.01Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 1,434 services

Providers submitted

$6110.89

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$961.01

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$763.39

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $6110.89 for this code and Medicare allowed $961.01 — 6.4× 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 $763.39 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $1025.66
Hospital / facility: $957.94

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. 65 services were billed in an office setting and 1,369 in a facility.

Services: 1,434
Beneficiaries: 1,263
Providers billing it: 66
Total allowed: $1,378,088

What Medicare pays for CPT 15733

Across 1,434 services billed by 66 providers to 1,263 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $961.01 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 15733

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Otolaryngology	514	481	$690.17	25
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	399	353	$932.01	17
Ambulatory Surgical Center	268	229	$1596.93	12
Ophthalmology	138	116	$933.33	7
Surgical Oncology	56	28	$815.90	1
Neurosurgery	25	24	$556.41	2
Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery	20	20	$1081.42	1
Maxillofacial Surgery	14	12	$960.98	1

15733 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	370	$974.03	$698.22	17
Florida	227	$1106.76	$893.52	13
Oklahoma	78	$1061.32	$922.38	3
Nebraska	78	$818.92	$745.84	1
New Jersey	76	$885.77	$517.10	2
Ohio	76	$848.66	$673.42	4
Pennsylvania	74	$825.49	$660.89	3
Maryland	73	$1233.93	$861.69	3
Delaware	63	$1140.10	$937.02	3
Illinois	49	$1215.04	$967.19	3
Arizona	38	$575.22	$464.55	1
New York	35	$943.13	$684.80	2
Massachusetts	32	$517.24	$416.38	2
Georgia	29	$717.33	$577.06	1
Kentucky	28	$935.80	$796.50	2
Kansas	25	$963.46	$797.59	1
Utah	25	$776.28	$638.68	1
Michigan	23	$879.02	$665.62	1
Wisconsin	12	$538.44	$375.83	1
North Carolina	12	$552.70	$431.52	1
Tennessee	11	$929.30	$805.11	1

Related codes

15734Creation of muscle graft to trunk$1018.35
15769Self soft tissue graft$431.80
15730Creation of flap graft to midface$1178.73

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.