How much does Medicare pay for CPT 17311?

Medicare allowed an average of $569.13 per service and paid $446.96 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $1528.77, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 17311?

Removal and microscopic exam of growth of head, neck, hands, feet, or genitals, 1-5 tissue blocks. It was billed 933,225 times to 730,342 Medicare beneficiaries by 3,051 providers in 2024.

Does 17311 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $581.52 in an office setting and $289.93 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 17311 most?

Dermatology, with 747,328 services from 2,622 clinicians. Next are Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery, Undefined Physician type, Ambulatory Surgical Center.

CPT 17311

Removal and microscopic exam of growth of head, neck, hands, feet, or genitals, 1-5 tissue blocks

$569.13Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 933,225 services

Providers submitted

$1528.77

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$569.13

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$446.96

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $1528.77 for this code and Medicare allowed $569.13 — 2.7× 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 $446.96 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $581.52
Hospital / facility: $289.93

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. 893,588 services were billed in an office setting and 39,637 in a facility.

Services: 933,225
Beneficiaries: 730,342
Providers billing it: 3,051
Total allowed: $531,126,344

What Medicare pays for CPT 17311

Across 933,225 services billed by 3,051 providers to 730,342 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $569.13 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 17311

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Dermatology	747,328	584,094	$572.09	2,622
Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery	169,002	133,193	$564.14	379
Undefined Physician type	4,285	3,173	$610.57	8
Ambulatory Surgical Center	3,893	2,998	$246.33	11
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	2,552	1,979	$526.53	7
Otolaryngology	1,839	1,451	$530.01	6
Pathology	1,470	1,179	$534.04	2
Internal Medicine	1,325	1,047	$576.28	7
Family Practice	895	729	$513.12	3
Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine	475	372	$535.01	1
General Practice	98	75	$559.91	2
Ophthalmology	29	23	$692.12	1
Physician Assistant	18	14	$420.64	1
Podiatry	16	15	$636.76	1

17311 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	118,037	$598.29	$456.31	365
California	95,605	$625.71	$433.11	437
Texas	61,454	$563.58	$435.99	199
New York	40,776	$644.89	$430.53	148
Pennsylvania	37,598	$528.29	$393.36	109
North Carolina	36,952	$551.19	$446.98	92
Arizona	34,604	$589.98	$448.55	108
Georgia	30,537	$565.06	$447.64	86
Virginia	30,100	$595.12	$449.38	62
Illinois	28,194	$571.37	$429.76	87
Ohio	26,607	$536.91	$438.00	82
Massachusetts	24,790	$571.21	$410.59	70
Tennessee	23,310	$531.39	$444.66	66
New Jersey	20,733	$597.40	$414.60	75
Missouri	19,972	$501.15	$409.90	63
Washington	19,497	$570.91	$429.08	64
South Carolina	19,149	$553.58	$448.82	37
Colorado	18,681	$614.78	$448.66	75
Indiana	16,344	$539.17	$438.66	44
Maryland	15,696	$654.56	$463.97	37
Alabama	15,426	$513.48	$435.51	43
Michigan	14,905	$560.79	$438.27	68
Arkansas	14,312	$515.94	$443.74	36
Wisconsin	13,432	$444.64	$353.49	52
Minnesota	13,333	$532.12	$410.75	70
Kansas	12,828	$536.33	$440.18	29
Kentucky	12,751	$498.80	$418.71	33
Utah	9,848	$529.97	$417.25	46
Oklahoma	8,879	$509.81	$418.60	23
Connecticut	8,535	$627.57	$452.98	29
Oregon	8,515	$593.35	$451.30	35
Iowa	8,405	$517.85	$415.48	30
Nevada	8,228	$576.33	$449.38	33
Louisiana	8,108	$524.28	$433.85	26
Mississippi	6,109	$539.78	$453.39	15
New Hampshire	6,051	$461.24	$345.90	15
Idaho	5,473	$515.81	$428.63	25
South Dakota	5,370	$403.36	$322.27	15
Montana	4,868	$465.41	$364.05	13
Nebraska	4,250	$526.60	$427.20	22
West Virginia	4,131	$515.40	$434.07	9
New Mexico	3,808	$506.42	$398.19	11
Delaware	3,567	$589.80	$435.67	12
Rhode Island	3,129	$552.78	$416.72	10
Maine	2,265	$519.75	$405.00	8
North Dakota	2,018	$321.99	$250.65	5
Hawaii	1,611	$623.88	$451.57	10
Vermont	1,505	$392.96	$305.13	5
Wyoming	1,156	$605.99	$470.53	6
Alaska	771	$718.42	$484.60	3
District of Columbia	724	$715.10	$494.20	3
Puerto Rico	278	$586.71	$454.30	5

Related codes

17312Removal and microscopic exam of growth of head$398.30
17313Removal and microscopic exam of growth of trunk$572.12
17314Removal and microscopic exam of growth of trunk$395.35
17315Removal and microscopic exam of growth$74.20
17360Chemical treatment of acne$123.75

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.