How much does Medicare pay for CPT 17312?

Medicare allowed an average of $398.30 per service and paid $318.25 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $917.95, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 17312?

Removal and microscopic exam of growth of head, neck, hands, feet, or genitals, each additional stage, 1-5 tissue blocks. It was billed 502,318 times to 327,302 Medicare beneficiaries by 2,845 providers in 2024.

Does 17312 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $405.82 in an office setting and $184.01 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 17312 most?

Dermatology, with 403,875 services from 2,437 clinicians. Next are Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery, Undefined Physician type, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

CPT 17312

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

$398.30Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 502,318 services

Providers submitted

$917.95

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$398.30

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$318.25

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $917.95 for this code and Medicare allowed $398.30 — 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 $318.25 (80%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $405.82
Hospital / facility: $184.01

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. 485,292 services were billed in an office setting and 17,026 in a facility.

Services: 502,318
Beneficiaries: 327,302
Providers billing it: 2,845
Total allowed: $200,073,259

What Medicare pays for CPT 17312

Across 502,318 services billed by 2,845 providers to 327,302 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $398.30 per service. That is 1.5 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 17312

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Dermatology	403,875	262,626	$399.06	2,437
Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery	91,723	60,309	$394.41	374
Undefined Physician type	2,171	1,396	$410.25	8
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	1,461	942	$416.88	7
Otolaryngology	1,032	658	$402.61	6
Internal Medicine	851	561	$400.18	7
Pathology	479	336	$379.84	2
Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine	342	218	$394.70	1
Family Practice	258	191	$369.61	1
General Practice	95	47	$464.14	1
Ophthalmology	31	18	$462.65	1

17312 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	67,708	$446.03	$314.72	390
Florida	64,193	$403.50	$320.35	342
Texas	30,811	$389.68	$312.16	181
New York	25,017	$447.04	$314.98	139
Pennsylvania	21,021	$379.33	$299.36	104
North Carolina	20,139	$381.42	$318.71	86
Arizona	18,115	$401.60	$321.53	102
Georgia	15,285	$389.64	$319.34	82
Illinois	14,752	$405.98	$311.47	78
Ohio	14,657	$364.45	$306.84	80
Virginia	14,621	$403.98	$315.06	58
New Jersey	14,543	$444.41	$316.88	69
Massachusetts	14,378	$399.81	$293.83	68
Tennessee	11,340	$366.23	$315.42	61
Colorado	9,608	$419.66	$320.68	70
South Carolina	9,125	$377.18	$321.67	37
Washington	8,833	$401.51	$308.58	62
Missouri	8,531	$362.37	$305.06	57
Michigan	8,317	$378.10	$307.91	61
Indiana	7,924	$370.93	$311.84	41
Maryland	7,286	$435.36	$319.73	37
Arkansas	7,079	$356.86	$315.66	34
Minnesota	6,420	$368.23	$293.65	63
Kansas	6,348	$367.62	$313.22	28
Kentucky	6,264	$360.96	$312.17	31
Alabama	6,111	$357.47	$312.31	40
Wisconsin	5,937	$303.83	$253.64	47
Nevada	5,105	$401.78	$320.92	31
Utah	4,824	$361.34	$297.69	44
Oklahoma	4,807	$358.74	$307.53	23
Connecticut	4,540	$438.32	$321.38	28
Oregon	4,313	$399.02	$310.32	35
Iowa	4,004	$351.38	$297.15	30
Louisiana	3,644	$350.17	$298.56	24
New Hampshire	3,356	$320.32	$249.36	15
Mississippi	2,522	$370.40	$322.59	14
Nebraska	2,384	$364.13	$307.70	20
Idaho	2,311	$355.55	$301.84	23
Montana	2,308	$360.90	$287.67	13
New Mexico	2,145	$361.72	$294.01	10
West Virginia	2,087	$365.99	$319.34	8
South Dakota	2,044	$316.28	$260.50	15
Delaware	1,471	$411.41	$323.12	12
Rhode Island	1,471	$389.39	$300.56	10
Maine	928	$350.82	$284.76	8
Hawaii	921	$440.69	$319.55	10
North Dakota	909	$220.25	$179.09	4
Wyoming	564	$409.72	$323.35	6
District of Columbia	497	$457.54	$323.22	3
Vermont	488	$241.73	$197.24	5
Alaska	228	$450.66	$323.35	3
Puerto Rico	84	$403.85	$323.11	3

Related codes

17311Removal and microscopic exam of growth of head$569.13
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.