How much does Medicare pay for CPT 17261?

Medicare allowed an average of $117.97 per service and paid $88.73 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $294.62, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 17261?

Destruction of cancer skin growth of trunk, arms, or legs, 0.6-1.0 cm. It was billed 97,465 times to 79,901 Medicare beneficiaries by 2,817 providers in 2024.

Does 17261 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $119.36 in an office setting and $59.29 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 17261 most?

Dermatology, with 74,786 services from 2,017 clinicians. Next are Physician Assistant, Nurse Practitioner, Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery.

CPT 17261

Destruction of cancer skin growth of trunk, arms, or legs, 0.6-1.0 cm

$117.97Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 97,465 services

Providers submitted

$294.62

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$117.97

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$88.73

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $294.62 for this code and Medicare allowed $117.97 — 2.5× 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 $88.73 (75%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $119.36
Hospital / facility: $59.29

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. 95,207 services were billed in an office setting and 2,258 in a facility.

Services: 97,465
Beneficiaries: 79,901
Providers billing it: 2,817
Total allowed: $11,497,946

What Medicare pays for CPT 17261

Across 97,465 services billed by 2,817 providers to 79,901 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $117.97 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 17261

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Dermatology	74,786	61,024	$121.34	2,017
Physician Assistant	14,992	12,656	$106.56	550
Nurse Practitioner	5,087	4,331	$105.27	183
Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery	1,488	1,154	$113.77	44
Pathology	309	249	$122.33	3
Family Practice	277	136	$96.46	6
Internal Medicine	210	146	$115.15	5
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	192	108	$95.92	3
Otolaryngology	49	34	$109.93	2
General Practice	26	19	$78.63	1
Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine	19	16	$119.97	1
Undefined Physician type	16	15	$108.12	1
Pediatric Medicine	14	13	$143.44	1

17261 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	18,244	$117.49	$87.82	411
California	8,017	$135.52	$88.98	216
Arizona	4,993	$118.92	$88.75	113
Texas	4,954	$121.01	$91.24	150
Pennsylvania	4,434	$118.82	$86.61	141
North Carolina	4,163	$113.02	$87.85	139
South Carolina	3,674	$109.55	$86.16	81
Virginia	3,487	$118.73	$85.40	81
Tennessee	2,789	$107.86	$87.85	85
Georgia	2,766	$117.11	$91.84	84
Illinois	2,728	$118.73	$87.53	87
Indiana	2,702	$110.52	$84.49	67
Massachusetts	2,547	$125.36	$85.78	87
New York	2,541	$139.38	$91.96	96
New Jersey	2,142	$139.30	$93.27	70
Ohio	1,962	$116.34	$89.99	67
Kentucky	1,797	$113.35	$91.81	53
Colorado	1,431	$129.38	$90.85	50
Oregon	1,417	$120.02	$87.11	41
Arkansas	1,372	$101.13	$86.45	35
Oklahoma	1,289	$105.54	$83.76	33
Missouri	1,288	$118.02	$91.27	46
Washington	1,144	$107.72	$75.31	48
Michigan	1,144	$121.07	$91.46	47
South Dakota	1,104	$62.28	$48.47	18
Alabama	1,072	$106.78	$90.54	42
Maryland	1,000	$127.81	$89.59	33
Nebraska	908	$106.81	$80.11	30
Iowa	858	$104.45	$80.77	27
Kansas	854	$112.08	$87.43	28
Utah	836	$110.43	$84.57	29
Wisconsin	793	$99.89	$75.67	28
Mississippi	759	$104.08	$88.23	22
New Mexico	681	$111.84	$87.54	20
New Hampshire	670	$100.50	$69.55	25
Minnesota	579	$120.81	$83.35	25
Connecticut	546	$137.78	$95.34	22
Hawaii	501	$119.33	$81.72	15
West Virginia	497	$106.99	$87.90	18
Maine	487	$125.88	$88.12	18
Louisiana	461	$114.52	$93.00	20
Nevada	374	$112.17	$86.97	13
Montana	329	$120.43	$89.89	15
Idaho	286	$103.59	$76.39	11
Vermont	216	$115.94	$89.23	5
North Dakota	163	$66.28	$49.41	6
Delaware	149	$126.27	$95.95	6
District of Columbia	136	$136.81	$91.34	3
Rhode Island	99	$115.44	$87.05	6
Wyoming	58	$117.64	$77.17	3
Alaska	24	$144.28	$85.59	1

Related codes

17262Destruction of cancer skin growth of trunk$148.27
17250Application of chemical to stop tissue regrowth in wound$51.54
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
17260Destruction of cancer skin growth of trunk$73.83
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.