How much does Medicare pay for HCPCS G0168?

Medicare allowed an average of $69.12 per service and paid $53.69 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $216.76, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is HCPCS code G0168?

Wound closure utilizing tissue adhesive(s) only. It was billed 2,331 times to 1,802 Medicare beneficiaries by 99 providers in 2024.

Does G0168 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $90.16 in an office setting and $13.90 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 G0168 most?

Emergency Medicine, with 554 services from 39 clinicians. Next are Infectious Disease, Family Practice, Diagnostic Radiology.

HCPCS G0168

Wound closure utilizing tissue adhesive(s) only

$69.12Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 2,331 services

Providers submitted

$216.76

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$69.12

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$53.69

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $216.76 for this code and Medicare allowed $69.12 — 3.1× 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 $53.69 (78%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $90.16
Hospital / facility: $13.90

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. 1,688 services were billed in an office setting and 643 in a facility.

Services: 2,331
Beneficiaries: 1,802
Providers billing it: 99
Total allowed: $161,119

What Medicare pays for HCPCS G0168

Across 2,331 services billed by 99 providers to 1,802 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $69.12 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 G0168

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Emergency Medicine	554	545	$38.14	39
Infectious Disease	443	43	$113.92	1
Family Practice	239	214	$64.49	11
Diagnostic Radiology	233	195	$41.28	6
Nurse Practitioner	224	223	$47.38	17
Physician Assistant	174	167	$45.46	9
Orthopedic Surgery	70	65	$124.64	2
Micrographic Dermatologic Surgery	66	58	$57.55	1
Internal Medicine	64	63	$117.76	4
Hand Surgery	58	54	$121.16	1
Neurosurgery	51	43	$131.62	1
Ophthalmology	38	36	$113.94	1
Cardiology	32	32	$66.91	1
Critical Care (Intensivists)	29	11	$64.85	1
General Practice	22	22	$111.15	2

G0168 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	916	$94.70	$66.61	25
Florida	584	$63.26	$49.14	30
New Mexico	130	$38.71	$47.33	4
New Jersey	83	$41.20	$32.65	6
South Carolina	82	$64.55	$55.98	2
Texas	81	$51.76	$57.66	2
Pennsylvania	76	$14.25	$10.48	5
Tennessee	62	$36.93	$32.24	3
New York	55	$99.12	$63.35	3
Ohio	49	$14.39	$11.00	3
Washington	26	$103.57	$79.38	1
Nebraska	24	$53.90	$36.44	2
Massachusetts	24	$68.53	$51.90	2
Missouri	23	$67.97	$46.87	2
Arizona	22	$64.59	$50.00	2
Alaska	19	$15.13	$11.43	1
Michigan	14	$15.14	$11.03	1
Minnesota	14	$13.85	$11.48	1
Maryland	12	$15.39	$10.49	1
Rhode Island	12	$13.71	$10.99	1
Illinois	12	$15.19	$10.96	1
Indiana	11	$11.22	$9.75	1

Related codes

G0103Prostate cancer screening; prostate specific antigen test (psa)$18.89
G0127Trimming of dystrophic nails$17.81
G0180Physician or allowed practitioner certification for medicare-covered h$52.34
G0101Cervical or vaginal cancer screening; pelvic and clinical breast exami$37.86
G0181Physician or allowed practitioner supervision of a patient receiving m$103.01
G0179Physician or allowed practitioner re-certification for medicare-covere$40.20
G0105Colorectal cancer screening; colonoscopy on individual at high risk$287.76
G0145Screening cytopathology$25.95
G0121Colorectal cancer screening; colonoscopy on individual not meeting cri$295.44
G0136Administration of a standardized$16.63
G0108Diabetes outpatient self-management training services$53.63
G0123Screening cytopathology$19.83

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.