How much does Medicare pay for CPT 17108?

Medicare allowed an average of $622.98 per service and paid $485.43 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $1046.69, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 17108?

Destruction of birthmark, more than 50.0 sq cm. It was billed 6,159 times to 2,333 Medicare beneficiaries by 34 providers in 2024.

Does 17108 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $623.72 in an office setting and $523.82 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 17108 most?

Dermatology, with 3,697 services from 20 clinicians. Next are Nurse Practitioner, Physician Assistant, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

CPT 17108

Destruction of birthmark, more than 50.0 sq cm

$622.98Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 6,159 services

Providers submitted

$1046.69

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$622.98

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$485.43

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $1046.69 for this code and Medicare allowed $622.98 — 1.7× 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 $485.43 (78%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $623.72
Hospital / facility: $523.82

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. 6,113 services were billed in an office setting and 46 in a facility.

Services: 6,159
Beneficiaries: 2,333
Providers billing it: 34
Total allowed: $3,836,934

What Medicare pays for CPT 17108

Across 6,159 services billed by 34 providers to 2,333 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $622.98 per service. That is 2.6 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 17108

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Dermatology	3,697	1,554	$660.60	20
Nurse Practitioner	777	377	$561.84	4
Physician Assistant	481	111	$517.18	2
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	415	57	$556.21	1
General Practice	360	94	$598.72	1
Vascular Surgery	180	50	$641.71	2
Internal Medicine	129	23	$588.35	1
Family Practice	61	18	$554.61	1
Anesthesiology	34	30	$683.83	1
General Surgery	25	19	$580.05	1

17108 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	2,489	$592.91	$445.28	16
New York	881	$772.26	$494.24	3
Arizona	849	$634.62	$484.70	3
Pennsylvania	775	$575.96	$488.65	2
Louisiana	644	$584.20	$489.61	4
Puerto Rico	212	$618.43	$489.27	2
Nevada	129	$588.35	$494.93	1
Illinois	95	$669.74	$490.11	1
Mississippi	60	$571.42	$487.57	1
Indiana	25	$580.05	$489.82	1

Related codes

17110Destruction of skin growth$103.02
17111Destruction of skin growth$124.75
17106Destruction of birthmark$346.13
17107Destruction of birthmark$450.14

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.