How much does Medicare pay for CPT 17004?

Medicare allowed an average of $159.79 per service and paid $116.26 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $365.58, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 17004?

Destruction of precancer skin growth, 15 or more growths. It was billed 807,938 times to 561,186 Medicare beneficiaries by 10,014 providers in 2024.

Does 17004 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $160.41 in an office setting and $92.10 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 17004 most?

Dermatology, with 550,426 services from 5,711 clinicians. Next are Physician Assistant, Nurse Practitioner, Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery.

CPT 17004

Destruction of precancer skin growth, 15 or more growths

$159.79Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 807,938 services

Providers submitted

$365.58

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$159.79

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$116.26

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $365.58 for this code and Medicare allowed $159.79 — 2.3× 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 $116.26 (73%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $160.41
Hospital / facility: $92.10

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. 800,592 services were billed in an office setting and 7,346 in a facility.

Services: 807,938
Beneficiaries: 561,186
Providers billing it: 10,014
Total allowed: $129,100,413

What Medicare pays for CPT 17004

Across 807,938 services billed by 10,014 providers to 561,186 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $159.79 per service. That is 1.4 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 17004

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Dermatology	550,426	371,487	$168.49	5,711
Physician Assistant	163,025	121,756	$139.23	2,793
Nurse Practitioner	66,458	49,893	$136.00	1,165
Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery	8,912	6,057	$164.83	93
Family Practice	7,943	5,210	$160.31	112
Internal Medicine	4,412	2,750	$169.84	59
General Practice	1,521	775	$170.67	13
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	1,440	684	$161.26	23
Pathology	1,044	771	$170.23	11
Otolaryngology	1,041	671	$166.58	8
Podiatry	595	291	$181.55	5
General Surgery	440	313	$162.53	6
Undefined Physician type	151	115	$169.76	4
Pediatric Medicine	134	104	$162.71	2
Preventive Medicine	79	64	$153.95	1

17004 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	153,216	$180.11	$117.12	1,277
Florida	113,504	$156.03	$113.66	1,236
Texas	57,447	$154.52	$113.94	729
New York	42,336	$178.77	$119.63	463
Arizona	27,197	$154.20	$110.67	331
Georgia	23,510	$145.69	$111.62	325
South Carolina	21,001	$147.58	$111.80	187
North Carolina	20,440	$147.72	$111.94	339
New Jersey	20,000	$175.32	$117.09	242
Virginia	19,302	$160.77	$114.23	272
Tennessee	17,723	$140.20	$110.08	274
Illinois	17,613	$152.84	$109.21	290
Nevada	16,323	$155.87	$112.23	112
Pennsylvania	15,993	$159.99	$115.52	268
Maryland	15,111	$172.20	$116.77	184
Massachusetts	14,861	$171.85	$115.08	249
Ohio	13,797	$147.35	$110.77	272
Louisiana	12,469	$150.67	$114.56	134
Indiana	12,223	$144.71	$110.49	174
Michigan	12,117	$153.67	$113.46	211
Washington	11,894	$153.50	$104.38	193
Colorado	11,886	$163.47	$113.21	223
Alabama	11,526	$139.32	$110.94	167
Missouri	10,975	$149.80	$113.55	145
Utah	10,330	$151.28	$111.71	120
Kentucky	8,987	$142.74	$114.17	125
Iowa	8,292	$132.45	$101.37	98
Oklahoma	8,062	$142.90	$108.91	107
Mississippi	7,703	$140.24	$114.66	79
Arkansas	7,468	$138.07	$112.12	96
Oregon	5,912	$153.62	$107.71	116
Kansas	5,484	$140.35	$106.78	96
New Mexico	5,374	$143.28	$108.86	56
Connecticut	5,267	$172.85	$118.55	86
Hawaii	5,139	$169.86	$112.32	40
Minnesota	4,921	$159.52	$109.61	111
Nebraska	4,885	$142.67	$107.54	64
Idaho	4,559	$136.38	$100.45	78
Wisconsin	3,969	$143.44	$104.51	97
Montana	3,055	$154.50	$105.23	45
New Hampshire	2,723	$151.07	$104.55	49
Delaware	2,723	$156.69	$114.50	36
South Dakota	2,271	$126.65	$96.04	37
Rhode Island	2,080	$159.35	$111.66	38
District of Columbia	1,238	$179.72	$121.50	25
West Virginia	1,127	$136.01	$106.04	33
Maine	1,041	$159.48	$118.63	21
Wyoming	893	$152.18	$106.71	16
North Dakota	772	$119.18	$83.72	22
Puerto Rico	640	$163.96	$122.02	6
Alaska	305	$179.03	$114.45	10
Vermont	214	$148.02	$107.91	9
Guam	40	$167.02	$127.71	1

Related codes

17003Destruction of precancer skin growth$6.16
17000Destruction of precancer skin growth$49.72

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.