How much does Medicare pay for CPT 17282?

Medicare allowed an average of $172.77 per service and paid $130.78 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $363.31, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 17282?

Destruction of cancer skin growth of face, ears, eyelids, nose, lips, or mouth, 1.1-2.0 cm. It was billed 42,001 times to 32,210 Medicare beneficiaries by 1,041 providers in 2024.

Does 17282 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $178.08 in an office setting and $92.13 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 17282 most?

Dermatology, with 35,848 services from 848 clinicians. Next are Physician Assistant, Nurse Practitioner, Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery.

CPT 17282

Destruction of cancer skin growth of face, ears, eyelids, nose, lips, or mouth, 1.1-2.0 cm

$172.77Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 42,001 services

Providers submitted

$363.31

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$172.77

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$130.78

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $363.31 for this code and Medicare allowed $172.77 — 2.1× 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 $130.78 (76%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $178.08
Hospital / facility: $92.13

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. 39,408 services were billed in an office setting and 2,593 in a facility.

Services: 42,001
Beneficiaries: 32,210
Providers billing it: 1,041
Total allowed: $7,256,513

What Medicare pays for CPT 17282

Across 42,001 services billed by 1,041 providers to 32,210 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $172.77 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 17282

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Dermatology	35,848	27,270	$175.43	848
Physician Assistant	3,706	3,094	$154.91	115
Nurse Practitioner	1,197	973	$155.42	40
Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery	396	331	$159.73	13
Family Practice	215	126	$159.26	6
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	159	85	$181.11	4
General Practice	141	92	$176.12	3
Internal Medicine	136	87	$159.40	6
Pediatric Medicine	83	62	$164.77	1
Otolaryngology	67	41	$167.09	2
Pathology	53	49	$190.72	3

17282 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	6,818	$178.88	$121.43	98
Florida	4,904	$183.15	$138.49	147
South Dakota	2,318	$95.22	$75.65	9
New York	2,097	$198.55	$135.17	45
Arkansas	1,956	$155.92	$131.30	40
Texas	1,875	$184.85	$140.25	64
North Carolina	1,741	$171.16	$130.86	50
Arizona	1,699	$179.35	$137.01	42
Pennsylvania	1,510	$179.44	$133.82	52
South Carolina	1,263	$165.15	$131.54	24
Georgia	1,174	$170.04	$137.36	33
Alabama	1,089	$155.69	$128.89	17
Indiana	1,066	$148.78	$116.41	23
Nebraska	887	$160.12	$122.98	16
Tennessee	750	$165.56	$134.97	19
Maryland	695	$194.97	$138.68	20
New Jersey	649	$214.58	$145.11	20
Illinois	594	$177.65	$141.72	19
Massachusetts	575	$194.54	$141.18	19
Michigan	560	$192.95	$139.53	22
Kentucky	513	$177.79	$143.28	17
Louisiana	507	$183.11	$143.73	17
Virginia	494	$189.60	$142.91	20
Colorado	440	$189.76	$135.37	15
Utah	434	$166.87	$127.57	12
Ohio	428	$175.48	$138.42	14
Kansas	427	$176.51	$137.05	13
Oklahoma	413	$163.39	$129.61	15
Mississippi	412	$162.82	$136.63	16
New Hampshire	383	$180.90	$135.88	12
Iowa	371	$181.58	$141.13	9
Washington	344	$186.67	$130.35	13
Missouri	320	$172.66	$135.76	15
Oregon	309	$187.20	$138.46	9
New Mexico	278	$179.03	$140.64	7
Maine	274	$185.60	$132.11	9
Hawaii	250	$188.39	$137.75	3
Vermont	213	$127.37	$86.22	2
Wisconsin	207	$175.32	$130.79	10
Idaho	129	$146.88	$120.93	6
West Virginia	122	$170.96	$142.32	7
Connecticut	115	$195.56	$140.16	5
Delaware	110	$194.52	$147.87	4
Nevada	80	$170.95	$123.28	3
North Dakota	62	$131.71	$96.66	2
Minnesota	52	$121.14	$83.38	3
Puerto Rico	37	$201.05	$152.47	1
Wyoming	22	$185.82	$150.77	1
Rhode Island	18	$167.58	$128.65	1
District of Columbia	17	$215.36	$161.33	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
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
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.