How much does Medicare pay for CPT 17271?

Medicare allowed an average of $126.74 per service and paid $95.91 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $290.60, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 17271?

Destruction of cancer skin growth of scalp, neck, hands, feet, or genitals, 0.6-1.0 cm. It was billed 23,501 times to 19,186 Medicare beneficiaries by 800 providers in 2024.

Does 17271 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $132.80 in an office setting and $55.10 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 17271 most?

Dermatology, with 19,871 services from 654 clinicians. Next are Physician Assistant, Nurse Practitioner, Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery.

CPT 17271

Destruction of cancer skin growth of scalp, neck, hands, feet, or genitals, 0.6-1.0 cm

$126.74Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 23,501 services

Providers submitted

$290.60

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$126.74

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$95.91

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $290.60 for this code and Medicare allowed $126.74 — 2.3× 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 $95.91 (76%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $132.80
Hospital / facility: $55.10

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. 21,668 services were billed in an office setting and 1,833 in a facility.

Services: 23,501
Beneficiaries: 19,186
Providers billing it: 800
Total allowed: $2,978,517

What Medicare pays for CPT 17271

Across 23,501 services billed by 800 providers to 19,186 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $126.74 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 17271

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Dermatology	19,871	16,201	$129.07	654
Physician Assistant	2,183	1,846	$110.49	91
Nurse Practitioner	817	711	$116.51	36
Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery	235	201	$132.22	10
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	138	65	$110.88	2
Pathology	83	72	$136.81	2
Family Practice	73	12	$75.66	1
Internal Medicine	66	46	$147.98	2
Otolaryngology	35	32	$121.39	2

17271 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	3,470	$136.12	$102.69	117
California	2,592	$132.63	$91.62	63
South Dakota	1,652	$57.10	$46.31	10
Texas	1,169	$142.30	$108.40	48
Arizona	1,090	$137.16	$101.76	32
Pennsylvania	966	$133.03	$95.54	31
North Carolina	863	$122.02	$97.38	33
Arkansas	848	$108.61	$91.48	26
South Carolina	833	$126.50	$98.73	25
Virginia	801	$143.13	$104.97	28
Georgia	751	$129.13	$99.79	29
Indiana	668	$128.58	$99.23	33
Nebraska	659	$102.77	$79.16	16
Tennessee	605	$126.62	$103.98	26
Illinois	586	$134.21	$101.87	22
Oklahoma	492	$118.98	$96.07	17
Kentucky	422	$132.75	$109.05	21
New York	401	$154.70	$100.40	19
New Jersey	381	$157.62	$107.16	18
Oregon	348	$142.40	$105.66	12
Utah	335	$125.00	$96.29	14
Alabama	327	$118.44	$96.26	14
Missouri	287	$133.59	$105.01	10
Mississippi	287	$122.34	$105.09	13
Maryland	287	$134.70	$95.63	10
Colorado	282	$153.54	$108.97	15
New Mexico	247	$130.69	$105.78	8
Kansas	232	$136.22	$111.14	8
Ohio	226	$131.86	$104.94	13
Massachusetts	217	$141.55	$102.14	12
Iowa	187	$122.34	$95.68	8
Louisiana	134	$126.28	$102.48	5
West Virginia	125	$129.01	$108.68	6
Washington	99	$112.93	$78.61	6
Maine	89	$143.45	$102.83	5
Nevada	88	$128.97	$94.81	4
Idaho	72	$119.54	$84.04	3
Michigan	54	$149.01	$105.98	4
New Hampshire	53	$121.97	$79.60	2
Connecticut	46	$164.68	$118.76	2
North Dakota	43	$79.82	$64.73	2
Vermont	39	$150.53	$121.42	1
Montana	34	$145.99	$109.54	2
Hawaii	31	$146.54	$100.47	2
Delaware	29	$157.71	$114.71	2
District of Columbia	22	$167.21	$122.84	1
Wisconsin	19	$135.20	$101.23	1
Wyoming	13	$171.67	$120.27	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
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.