How much does Medicare pay for CPT 17270?

Medicare allowed an average of $99.23 per service and paid $75.57 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $217.81, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 17270?

Destruction of cancer skin growth of scalp, neck, hands, feet, or genitals, 0.5 cm or less. It was billed 1,900 times to 1,317 Medicare beneficiaries by 64 providers in 2024.

Does 17270 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $122.18 in an office setting and $45.82 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 17270 most?

Dermatology, with 1,601 services from 50 clinicians. Next are Nurse Practitioner, Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery, General Practice.

CPT 17270

Destruction of cancer skin growth of scalp, neck, hands, feet, or genitals, 0.5 cm or less

$99.23Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 1,900 services

Providers submitted

$217.81

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$99.23

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$75.57

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $217.81 for this code and Medicare allowed $99.23 — 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 $75.57 (76%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $122.18
Hospital / facility: $45.82

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. 1,329 services were billed in an office setting and 571 in a facility.

Services: 1,900
Beneficiaries: 1,317
Providers billing it: 64
Total allowed: $188,537

What Medicare pays for CPT 17270

Across 1,900 services billed by 64 providers to 1,317 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $99.23 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 17270

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Dermatology	1,601	1,109	$96.42	50
Nurse Practitioner	107	81	$118.09	5
Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery	61	56	$128.90	4
General Practice	58	12	$85.66	1
Physician Assistant	55	42	$118.34	3
General Surgery	18	17	$121.84	1

17270 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
South Dakota	555	$45.35	$37.38	1
California	163	$108.93	$78.46	6
Florida	161	$125.09	$93.20	9
North Carolina	93	$126.29	$94.20	2
Oklahoma	90	$114.94	$91.21	5
New Jersey	80	$146.48	$101.55	2
Illinois	73	$126.19	$93.82	4
Tennessee	71	$106.29	$89.17	3
Texas	62	$131.92	$104.59	2
South Carolina	61	$117.30	$90.47	4
Massachusetts	58	$85.66	$58.98	1
Utah	55	$102.29	$74.42	3
Georgia	48	$130.03	$104.74	3
Arkansas	46	$110.14	$90.31	2
Arizona	36	$144.50	$110.83	2
Maryland	35	$129.76	$94.44	1
Mississippi	31	$123.81	$110.57	2
Kansas	30	$119.87	$95.46	2
Pennsylvania	29	$134.42	$108.14	2
New York	26	$155.73	$105.61	2
West Virginia	24	$112.57	$91.61	1
Kentucky	23	$129.41	$110.02	1
Virginia	15	$124.37	$104.70	1
Indiana	13	$139.35	$108.89	1
Hawaii	11	$154.22	$96.89	1
Nevada	11	$135.74	$93.46	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.