How Much Does Destruction of Skin Lesion Cost in Iowa?
Destruct premalg lesion
$61.45In-office total2026 Medicare, Iowa averageUnder 2026 Medicare rates, destruction of skin lesion in a doctor's office costs about $61 in Iowa, with no separate facility fee. In a facility the national total is up to about $253 at a hospital outpatient department, because the facility is paid its own rate on top of the physician.
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- ✓The add-on codes that typically land on the bill
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Iowa Medicare physician rate (2026)
-7.6% vs nationalSingle statewide locality.
What it costs in a hospital or surgery center
In a doctor’s office, the office rate above is the whole Medicare payment. When the same procedure is done in a hospital or surgery center, the facility bills its own fee on top of the physician, which is what these totals show. They are 2026 national Medicare amounts.
Medicare may pay the facility separately for this code or package it into another service on the same day, so treat the facility share as an upper bound. Medicare allowed amounts are not what an uninsured patient is charged, and not a quote. Private plans typically allow more.
Your ZIP in Iowa
Try your ZIP code to see local context, whether you are in Des Moines, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, the Quad Cities, Sioux City, or one of Iowa's many rural counties.
What destruction of skin lesion costs at hospitals near you
Everything above is a national average. The hospital you pick in Iowa moves the bill more than anything else you control.
Rates for your ZIP, 5 named hospitals with CMS ratings, the add-on codes, and the scheduler script.
For example 50001.
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What these numbers are
Every figure on this page is a 2026 Medicare allowed amount: the physician line comes from the Physician Fee Schedule adjusted by geographic practice-cost indices, and the facility totals come from the CMS hospital outpatient (OPPS) and ambulatory surgery center rates. None of them is a hospital chargemaster price, your insurer's contracted rate, or a quote. Anesthesia, pathology, imaging reads and follow-up care are billed under their own codes when they apply, and an inpatient stay is paid a different way again. In Iowa the office and hospital physician lines for this CPT differ by $17.11.
National vs Iowa
Where Iowa ranks for this CPT
Destruction of Skin Lesion and how Iowa is priced
Iowa is priced as one statewide locality, and its low geographic indices have long placed Medicare-approved amounts here among the lowest in the nation, a point the state's medical community has repeatedly raised with Washington. Des Moines and the smallest farm towns share the same fee schedule adjustments. The single locality means the university medical center in Iowa City bills against the same geographic factors as a rural clinic. Consumers comparing across state lines will often find Iowa procedure prices lower than in Illinois or Minnesota metros.
Care in Iowa is organized around Des Moines, the university hospital in Iowa City, and regional hubs like Cedar Rapids, Davenport, and Sioux City, each serving broad rural catchments. Many small counties have hospitals with limited procedure offerings, so referrals up the chain are routine. Residents on the state's edges commonly cross into Omaha, the Quad Cities, or Rochester, Minnesota for specialty care.
This procedure: This is the destruction, most often by liquid nitrogen freezing, of a single precancerous skin lesion such as an actinic keratosis, the rough scaly patch caused by years of sun exposure. The dermatologist sprays or dabs the lesion for a few seconds; it stings briefly, blisters or crusts over a few days, and then peels away. No anesthesia or downtime is needed, and the whole treatment adds only moments to a skin exam.
What Is Destruction of Skin Lesion?
This is the destruction, most often by liquid nitrogen freezing, of a single precancerous skin lesion such as an actinic keratosis, the rough scaly patch caused by years of sun exposure. The dermatologist sprays or dabs the lesion for a few seconds; it stings briefly, blisters or crusts over a few days, and then peels away. No anesthesia or downtime is needed, and the whole treatment adds only moments to a skin exam.
What Affects the Cost
- –The code covers only the first lesion; every additional lesion frozen at the same visit is billed under add-on code 17003, and 15 or more lesions switch to code 17004.
- –Many patients need re-treatment at future visits because actinic keratoses recur, so annual cost is a multiple of one session.
- –An office visit charge is often billed alongside the freezing when the clinician also performs a skin exam or addresses other concerns.
- –Alternative treatments for widespread lesions, such as prescription field creams or photodynamic therapy, carry very different price tags worth comparing.
- –Freezing a benign spot like a plain seborrheic keratosis for appearance reasons is usually coded differently and may not be covered at all.
Questions to Ask Before Booking
- 1.How many lesions will you treat today, and what is the charge for each additional one?
- 2.Are any of the spots you plan to freeze considered cosmetic rather than precancerous?
- 3.Will today also be billed as an office visit on top of the freezing?
- 4.If I have many lesions, would a prescription cream or field treatment be more cost-effective than repeated freezing?
- 5.How often should I expect to come back for re-treatment, and what does a typical year of visits cost?
Other featured procedures in Iowa
Destruction of Skin Lesion in other states
Destruction of Skin Lesion in Iowa: questions
Under 2026 Medicare rates, destruction of skin lesion in a doctor's office costs about $61 in Iowa, with no separate facility fee. In a facility the national total is up to about $253 at a hospital outpatient department, because the facility is paid its own rate on top of the physician. Iowa is a single Medicare locality, so the physician rate is the same statewide.
Not on the physician fee schedule. Iowa uses one locality, so the Medicare physician rate is the same from one end of the state to the other. What still changes is site of service (office vs hospital) and any facility fee the hospital bills on its own claim.
After the Part B deductible, coinsurance is usually 20% of the allowed amount: about $12 for the office physician line or $9 for the hospital physician line in Iowa. Medigap may cover that 20%. This is not the hospital facility fee.
In a doctor's office, $61.45 is Medicare's whole payment in Iowa: it covers the physician, the room and the supplies, with no separate facility fee. If it is done in a hospital outpatient department instead, the physician is paid about $44.34 and the hospital adds its own facility payment, bringing the national total to up to about $253. Services billed under other codes, such as lab work, are extra. Iowa ranks #7 of 51 states on the office rate (8% below the national office rate of $66.47).