How much does Medicare pay for CPT 17313?

Medicare allowed an average of $572.12 per service and paid $449.80 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $1413.94, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 17313?

Removal and microscopic exam of growth of trunk, arms, or legs, 1-5 tissue blocks. It was billed 201,730 times to 162,117 Medicare beneficiaries by 2,410 providers in 2024.

Does 17313 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $582.25 in an office setting and $278.47 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 17313 most?

Dermatology, with 164,077 services from 2,021 clinicians. Next are Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery, Undefined Physician type, Ambulatory Surgical Center.

CPT 17313

Removal and microscopic exam of growth of trunk, arms, or legs, 1-5 tissue blocks

$572.12Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 201,730 services

Providers submitted

$1413.94

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$572.12

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$449.80

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $1413.94 for this code and Medicare allowed $572.12 — 2.5× 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 $449.80 (79%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $582.25
Hospital / facility: $278.47

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. 195,002 services were billed in an office setting and 6,728 in a facility.

Services: 201,730
Beneficiaries: 162,117
Providers billing it: 2,410
Total allowed: $115,413,768

What Medicare pays for CPT 17313

Across 201,730 services billed by 2,410 providers to 162,117 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $572.12 per service. That is 1.2 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 17313

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Dermatology	164,077	131,851	$574.24	2,021
Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery	34,317	27,596	$565.81	351
Undefined Physician type	939	722	$612.11	8
Ambulatory Surgical Center	572	478	$286.45	6
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery	543	406	$565.59	5
Internal Medicine	403	326	$572.61	6
Otolaryngology	317	252	$543.03	6
Pathology	248	211	$571.90	2
Family Practice	151	137	$568.50	1
General Practice	79	64	$617.57	2
Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine	65	58	$588.94	1
Ophthalmology	19	16	$714.42	1

17313 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	30,750	$588.43	$452.78	292
California	23,702	$620.96	$430.52	310
New York	13,198	$640.18	$427.81	124
Texas	12,298	$554.31	$431.49	161
Georgia	8,306	$560.71	$448.40	76
Arizona	8,142	$578.40	$448.24	92
North Carolina	7,291	$545.12	$445.92	78
Pennsylvania	7,109	$546.50	$400.27	85
Massachusetts	6,438	$569.94	$410.62	64
New Jersey	6,372	$620.99	$429.45	64
Virginia	5,893	$590.04	$449.74	55
Illinois	5,454	$572.33	$434.74	73
Tennessee	5,106	$523.97	$441.38	57
Ohio	5,006	$525.28	$430.37	69
Alabama	4,703	$493.07	$418.28	39
South Carolina	4,270	$540.27	$448.72	29
Indiana	3,818	$544.42	$442.25	40
Missouri	3,344	$501.57	$409.92	54
Washington	3,118	$568.44	$425.41	53
Maryland	2,999	$651.17	$459.14	30
Colorado	2,682	$605.63	$454.49	52
Arkansas	2,677	$482.13	$419.62	27
Michigan	2,404	$553.49	$436.64	50
Kentucky	2,311	$530.32	$443.59	26
Kansas	1,947	$511.47	$416.42	26
Connecticut	1,908	$636.60	$462.47	26
Nevada	1,815	$577.98	$448.00	26
Wisconsin	1,752	$451.30	$360.30	37
Minnesota	1,568	$537.42	$416.42	40
Louisiana	1,479	$510.65	$427.22	21
Oklahoma	1,474	$543.43	$449.71	21
Utah	1,307	$511.47	$387.17	26
Oregon	1,230	$584.60	$441.46	29
New Hampshire	1,185	$502.94	$376.04	15
Delaware	1,125	$608.19	$419.94	11
Rhode Island	1,019	$540.84	$410.14	10
West Virginia	919	$502.66	$424.56	8
Mississippi	908	$524.26	$442.44	11
Iowa	726	$536.93	$435.14	17
Idaho	639	$514.45	$420.77	17
South Dakota	611	$397.15	$320.93	12
New Mexico	544	$488.00	$382.99	7
Nebraska	535	$523.82	$425.04	11
Montana	415	$458.12	$349.52	10
Hawaii	384	$648.15	$465.58	8
Maine	311	$512.93	$403.67	7
District of Columbia	244	$678.57	$460.61	3
North Dakota	127	$305.98	$242.39	3
Vermont	75	$362.62	$288.63	3
Wyoming	60	$602.23	$484.73	3
Alaska	32	$669.48	$476.11	2

Related codes

17311Removal and microscopic exam of growth of head$569.13
17312Removal and microscopic exam of growth of head$398.30
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.