How much does Medicare pay for CPT 17281?

Medicare allowed an average of $143.74 per service and paid $108.08 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $311.62, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 17281?

Destruction of cancer skin growth of face, ears, eyelids, nose, lips, or mouth, 0.6-1.0 cm. It was billed 41,385 times to 32,669 Medicare beneficiaries by 1,026 providers in 2024.

Does 17281 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $150.85 in an office setting and $63.83 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 17281 most?

Dermatology, with 34,509 services from 824 clinicians. Next are Physician Assistant, Nurse Practitioner, Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery.

CPT 17281

Destruction of cancer skin growth of face, ears, eyelids, nose, lips, or mouth, 0.6-1.0 cm

$143.74Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 41,385 services

Providers submitted

$311.62

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$143.74

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$108.08

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $311.62 for this code and Medicare allowed $143.74 — 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 $108.08 (75%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $150.85
Hospital / facility: $63.83

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. 38,003 services were billed in an office setting and 3,382 in a facility.

Services: 41,385
Beneficiaries: 32,669
Providers billing it: 1,026
Total allowed: $5,948,680

What Medicare pays for CPT 17281

Across 41,385 services billed by 1,026 providers to 32,669 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $143.74 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 17281

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Dermatology	34,509	27,191	$146.24	824
Physician Assistant	3,777	3,175	$127.08	116
Nurse Practitioner	1,581	1,297	$135.07	44
Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery	362	324	$147.85	16
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	337	178	$135.69	6
Family Practice	251	132	$119.98	8
Internal Medicine	164	100	$146.81	4
General Practice	162	73	$112.21	2
Pathology	159	134	$161.20	2
Otolaryngology	83	65	$135.48	4

17281 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	4,823	$154.89	$116.62	103
California	4,592	$151.27	$104.49	94
South Dakota	3,084	$64.27	$51.92	11
Texas	2,209	$158.63	$121.56	66
Arkansas	1,820	$123.79	$105.20	36
Arizona	1,715	$148.77	$110.30	33
South Carolina	1,704	$140.64	$109.06	25
Pennsylvania	1,669	$153.08	$110.52	43
North Carolina	1,598	$139.80	$108.36	44
Georgia	1,138	$153.01	$120.46	26
Virginia	1,104	$165.37	$121.59	29
Oklahoma	1,061	$138.31	$109.89	24
New York	1,041	$173.60	$115.89	38
Nebraska	1,033	$125.00	$95.01	18
Illinois	968	$154.46	$116.59	32
Indiana	885	$149.63	$115.35	27
Kentucky	803	$150.76	$119.16	21
Kansas	782	$148.25	$119.43	14
New Jersey	738	$179.59	$125.08	29
Utah	688	$146.99	$115.48	19
Tennessee	660	$145.07	$116.60	23
Missouri	559	$149.61	$116.24	16
New Mexico	546	$148.20	$115.79	14
Mississippi	526	$134.33	$110.87	17
Maryland	521	$168.12	$114.26	17
Massachusetts	504	$150.24	$106.95	20
Ohio	502	$155.04	$120.27	19
Alabama	490	$135.50	$115.98	17
Louisiana	472	$144.66	$115.32	17
Colorado	359	$175.81	$122.05	16
Oregon	331	$164.97	$119.95	11
West Virginia	279	$133.87	$108.19	11
Iowa	275	$143.64	$112.92	10
Michigan	255	$165.63	$122.37	13
Maine	213	$157.80	$110.07	11
Wisconsin	189	$142.47	$106.64	7
Washington	168	$158.69	$112.47	8
Hawaii	158	$169.64	$109.79	6
New Hampshire	149	$153.35	$106.06	7
Nevada	135	$150.74	$108.18	6
Idaho	128	$113.49	$87.76	6
Minnesota	123	$132.44	$100.05	7
Vermont	103	$141.68	$103.21	3
Connecticut	99	$181.56	$125.00	5
District of Columbia	64	$184.88	$133.29	1
Delaware	41	$167.34	$119.00	2
North Dakota	35	$87.42	$68.67	1
Montana	28	$170.24	$111.51	2
Rhode Island	18	$162.08	$121.52	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
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
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.