How much does Medicare pay for CPT 17260?

Medicare allowed an average of $73.83 per service and paid $55.15 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $213.87, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 17260?

Destruction of cancer skin growth of trunk, arms, or legs, 0.5 cm or less. It was billed 7,618 times to 6,286 Medicare beneficiaries by 324 providers in 2024.

Does 17260 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $75.08 in an office setting and $42.56 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 17260 most?

Dermatology, with 5,826 services from 242 clinicians. Next are Physician Assistant, Nurse Practitioner, Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery.

CPT 17260

Destruction of cancer skin growth of trunk, arms, or legs, 0.5 cm or less

$73.83Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 7,618 services

Providers submitted

$213.87

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$73.83

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$55.15

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $213.87 for this code and Medicare allowed $73.83 — 2.9× 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 $55.15 (75%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $75.08
Hospital / facility: $42.56

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. 7,327 services were billed in an office setting and 291 in a facility.

Services: 7,618
Beneficiaries: 6,286
Providers billing it: 324
Total allowed: $562,437

What Medicare pays for CPT 17260

Across 7,618 services billed by 324 providers to 6,286 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $73.83 per service. That is 1.2 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 17260

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Dermatology	5,826	4,896	$76.14	242
Physician Assistant	912	768	$67.62	46
Nurse Practitioner	508	393	$65.97	21
Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery	176	145	$71.84	9
Family Practice	138	28	$50.11	2
Pathology	22	22	$64.01	1
Pediatric Medicine	13	11	$71.10	1
Internal Medicine	12	12	$81.05	1
General Surgery	11	11	$74.78	1

17260 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	1,500	$74.74	$52.22	58
California	703	$74.92	$50.75	39
Virginia	371	$68.91	$51.42	16
New York	352	$92.97	$60.73	16
Oklahoma	326	$56.59	$45.82	10
Illinois	326	$79.61	$54.30	13
New Jersey	326	$86.58	$59.39	14
Arizona	320	$72.42	$54.38	15
Pennsylvania	295	$78.71	$57.55	13
South Carolina	271	$74.87	$51.05	12
Texas	251	$69.97	$51.46	9
Massachusetts	209	$69.01	$47.44	10
Georgia	202	$74.20	$53.35	9
South Dakota	187	$37.76	$31.01	2
West Virginia	158	$59.44	$45.23	6
Maryland	154	$85.47	$59.11	7
Indiana	146	$79.28	$58.35	6
Tennessee	142	$70.19	$53.65	7
New Hampshire	126	$71.78	$49.73	5
North Carolina	123	$73.36	$55.04	4
Mississippi	109	$77.87	$57.75	5
Hawaii	106	$71.59	$48.64	3
Oregon	104	$62.89	$46.73	5
Kentucky	101	$75.32	$50.56	3
Ohio	98	$74.60	$54.51	5
Utah	57	$73.04	$56.45	3
Alabama	55	$80.18	$69.03	2
Arkansas	54	$74.38	$55.76	2
Kansas	50	$67.07	$50.03	3
Missouri	49	$81.10	$58.44	2
New Mexico	41	$76.00	$52.64	3
Alaska	38	$107.25	$68.10	1
Washington	32	$87.94	$62.98	2
Michigan	29	$77.91	$48.21	2
Nebraska	27	$62.34	$43.00	2
Iowa	27	$69.50	$55.38	1
Vermont	26	$72.42	$55.97	1
Delaware	26	$69.84	$55.87	1
Rhode Island	26	$68.06	$49.48	2
North Dakota	25	$49.18	$38.07	1
Colorado	25	$86.43	$57.26	2
Wisconsin	13	$68.80	$46.56	1
Nevada	12	$70.86	$49.05	1

Related codes

17262Destruction of cancer skin growth of trunk$148.27
17250Application of chemical to stop tissue regrowth in wound$51.54
17261Destruction of cancer skin growth of trunk$117.97
17272Destruction of cancer skin growth of scalp$154.94
17282Destruction of cancer skin growth of face$172.77
17281Destruction of cancer skin growth of face$143.74
17263Destruction of cancer skin growth of trunk$169.10
17271Destruction of cancer skin growth of scalp$126.74
17280Destruction of cancer skin growth of face$100.61
17283Destruction of cancer skin growth of face$211.66
17273Destruction of cancer skin growth of scalp$177.31
17270Destruction of cancer skin growth of scalp$99.23

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.