How much does Medicare pay for CPT 17273?

Medicare allowed an average of $177.31 per service and paid $136.68 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $353.98, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 17273?

Destruction of cancer skin growth of scalp, neck, hands, feet, or genitals, 2.1-3.0 cm. It was billed 4,355 times to 3,461 Medicare beneficiaries by 137 providers in 2024.

Does 17273 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $178.41 in an office setting and $110.80 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 17273 most?

Dermatology, with 3,590 services from 118 clinicians. Next are Nurse Practitioner, Physician Assistant, Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery.

CPT 17273

Destruction of cancer skin growth of scalp, neck, hands, feet, or genitals, 2.1-3.0 cm

$177.31Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 4,355 services

Providers submitted

$353.98

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$177.31

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$136.68

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $353.98 for this code and Medicare allowed $177.31 — 2.0× 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 $136.68 (77%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $178.41
Hospital / facility: $110.80

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. 4,284 services were billed in an office setting and 71 in a facility.

Services: 4,355
Beneficiaries: 3,461
Providers billing it: 137
Total allowed: $772,185

What Medicare pays for CPT 17273

Across 4,355 services billed by 137 providers to 3,461 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $177.31 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 17273

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Dermatology	3,590	2,915	$180.50	118
Nurse Practitioner	304	185	$154.51	4
Physician Assistant	288	219	$161.73	11
Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery	71	66	$179.42	1
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	39	24	$151.45	1
Pathology	32	25	$217.69	1
Pediatric Medicine	31	27	$162.59	1

17273 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	998	$171.88	$120.36	17
Florida	890	$174.06	$130.71	25
New York	382	$201.97	$137.37	10
Georgia	228	$160.81	$124.74	7
Maryland	221	$192.53	$145.89	5
Indiana	202	$154.97	$124.57	5
Pennsylvania	171	$177.09	$131.14	7
Arkansas	123	$154.40	$129.01	3
Arizona	120	$182.04	$143.74	4
North Carolina	117	$183.82	$147.08	7
Texas	116	$194.08	$146.27	6
South Carolina	104	$178.61	$146.93	5
New Jersey	80	$215.21	$145.76	4
Virginia	78	$178.14	$126.60	3
Kentucky	65	$168.98	$142.68	2
Tennessee	59	$173.48	$145.42	4
Nebraska	58	$162.98	$130.07	3
Louisiana	51	$188.11	$145.86	3
Illinois	44	$186.46	$146.53	3
Utah	34	$156.22	$125.57	1
Iowa	31	$194.12	$156.70	2
Massachusetts	30	$213.53	$146.82	2
Alabama	28	$133.06	$112.84	2
Nevada	27	$165.40	$130.73	2
Kansas	22	$197.47	$147.44	1
Mississippi	21	$177.76	$146.05	1
Colorado	19	$201.44	$150.96	1
New Mexico	18	$189.74	$159.50	1
Oregon	18	$196.47	$141.99	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
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.