How much does Medicare pay for CPT 17280?

Medicare allowed an average of $100.61 per service and paid $75.02 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $236.25, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 17280?

Destruction of cancer skin growth of face, ears, eyelids, nose, lips, or mouth, 0.5 cm or less. It was billed 8,234 times to 6,355 Medicare beneficiaries by 265 providers in 2024.

Does 17280 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $112.97 in an office setting and $44.67 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 17280 most?

Dermatology, with 6,694 services from 213 clinicians. Next are Physician Assistant, Nurse Practitioner, General Practice.

CPT 17280

Destruction of cancer skin growth of face, ears, eyelids, nose, lips, or mouth, 0.5 cm or less

$100.61Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 8,234 services

Providers submitted

$236.25

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$100.61

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$75.02

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $236.25 for this code and Medicare allowed $100.61 — 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 $75.02 (75%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $112.97
Hospital / facility: $44.67

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. 6,744 services were billed in an office setting and 1,490 in a facility.

Services: 8,234
Beneficiaries: 6,355
Providers billing it: 265
Total allowed: $828,423

What Medicare pays for CPT 17280

Across 8,234 services billed by 265 providers to 6,355 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $100.61 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 17280

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Dermatology	6,694	5,320	$101.66	213
Physician Assistant	478	433	$102.39	24
Nurse Practitioner	346	275	$98.45	13
General Practice	238	53	$76.88	2
Family Practice	128	26	$71.74	2
Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery	113	98	$102.30	4
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	111	48	$103.29	3
Internal Medicine	67	48	$108.18	2
Pathology	33	31	$127.00	1
General Surgery	26	23	$113.75	1

17280 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	1,321	$41.42	$33.95	1
California	950	$118.56	$79.35	35
Oklahoma	546	$90.64	$71.04	12
Florida	531	$117.75	$90.12	21
Illinois	324	$115.62	$87.63	15
Kansas	320	$108.65	$86.74	6
Virginia	288	$120.91	$88.36	11
New Jersey	256	$134.37	$90.00	10
Massachusetts	252	$83.08	$60.28	3
Texas	234	$115.91	$93.81	11
Arizona	224	$116.53	$86.65	10
South Carolina	218	$116.37	$88.86	7
North Carolina	215	$111.93	$86.77	6
Pennsylvania	214	$114.81	$86.10	9
Maryland	195	$120.32	$86.15	8
Georgia	188	$109.67	$88.89	6
Tennessee	185	$108.42	$84.88	7
Arkansas	181	$97.28	$82.23	7
Ohio	162	$113.44	$87.40	6
Mississippi	154	$106.82	$89.56	6
New York	153	$135.40	$91.34	9
Utah	137	$101.37	$77.63	6
Indiana	118	$110.68	$88.29	5
Missouri	116	$116.59	$88.72	5
Kentucky	115	$115.12	$93.45	7
West Virginia	113	$101.31	$78.10	5
New Mexico	104	$106.74	$83.63	5
Nebraska	70	$110.41	$84.76	5
Nevada	60	$113.15	$83.78	4
Hawaii	56	$86.37	$73.37	2
Colorado	52	$133.39	$92.96	3
Vermont	37	$114.74	$90.39	2
Washington	31	$79.61	$54.84	2
Alabama	26	$105.43	$100.16	2
Michigan	24	$123.16	$71.09	2
Louisiana	24	$118.32	$87.72	1
Maine	14	$115.06	$82.72	1
Oregon	13	$130.80	$106.23	1
New Hampshire	13	$79.17	$53.34	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
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.