How much does Medicare pay for CPT 17264?

Medicare allowed an average of $177.65 per service and paid $138.37 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $391.93, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 17264?

Destruction of cancer skin growth of trunk, arms, or legs, 3.1-4.0 cm. It was billed 1,681 times to 1,341 Medicare beneficiaries by 64 providers in 2024.

Which specialty bills 17264 most?

Dermatology, with 1,339 services from 50 clinicians. Next are Physician Assistant, Nurse Practitioner, Pathology.

CPT 17264

Destruction of cancer skin growth of trunk, arms, or legs, 3.1-4.0 cm

$177.65Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 1,681 services

Providers submitted

$391.93

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$177.65

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$138.37

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $391.93 for this code and Medicare allowed $177.65 — 2.2× 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 $138.37 (78%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Services: 1,681
Beneficiaries: 1,341
Providers billing it: 64
Total allowed: $298,630

What Medicare pays for CPT 17264

Across 1,681 services billed by 64 providers to 1,341 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $177.65 per service. That is 1.3 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 17264

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Dermatology	1,339	1,078	$180.09	50
Physician Assistant	158	126	$158.54	8
Nurse Practitioner	83	59	$155.23	3
Pathology	66	53	$213.19	1
Internal Medicine	21	13	$119.54	1
Family Practice	14	12	$212.15	1

17264 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	446	$157.75	$107.54	8
Florida	319	$189.45	$136.87	12
New York	154	$204.93	$143.84	8
Maryland	89	$203.83	$145.05	4
Arizona	86	$162.63	$133.24	3
Georgia	85	$171.17	$128.37	4
New Jersey	73	$207.91	$149.99	4
Massachusetts	55	$210.13	$137.80	2
Nevada	55	$162.56	$127.07	1
Alabama	39	$185.64	$150.62	1
Arkansas	31	$176.20	$139.45	2
Pennsylvania	30	$128.99	$100.55	2
Indiana	29	$123.88	$102.70	2
Ohio	28	$181.39	$152.66	1
South Carolina	24	$151.22	$129.77	1
Texas	21	$193.74	$151.51	1
Mississippi	21	$119.54	$112.19	1
Connecticut	18	$190.99	$126.19	1
Colorado	15	$196.45	$151.82	1
North Carolina	14	$191.31	$151.72	1
Illinois	13	$206.16	$156.18	1
New Hampshire	13	$207.15	$161.62	1
Iowa	12	$183.97	$148.61	1
Oklahoma	11	$166.72	$149.56	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
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

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.