How Much Does a Skin Biopsy (Punch) Cost in South Carolina?
Punch bx skin single lesion
$113.86In-office total2026 Medicare, South Carolina averageUnder 2026 Medicare rates, a skin biopsy (punch) in a doctor's office costs about $114 in South Carolina, with no separate facility fee. In a facility the national total is about $453 at a hospital outpatient department or about $130 at an ambulatory surgery center, because the facility is paid its own rate on top of the physician.
- ✓Your ZIP's wage-adjusted hospital and surgery center rates
- ✓Five nearby hospitals by name, with CMS star ratings
- ✓The add-on codes that typically land on the bill
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- ✓Everything in the Premium report
- ✓15 nearby hospitals instead of five
- ✓Filled good-faith-estimate request letter
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- ✓Printable PDF download
South Carolina Medicare physician rate (2026)
-6.1% 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.
Choosing a surgery center over a hospital saves about $324 on the Medicare allowed amount for skin biopsy (punch). Ask whether your procedure can be done at an ambulatory surgery center.
This is Medicare's separate payment to the facility on top of the physician's fee. Medicare allowed amounts are not what an uninsured patient is charged, and not a quote. Private plans typically allow more.
Your ZIP in South Carolina
Check your ZIP code for your region of South Carolina, whether Charleston and the Lowcountry, Columbia and the Midlands, Greenville-Spartanburg in the Upstate, or Myrtle Beach and the Grand Strand.
What skin biopsy (punch) costs at hospitals near you
Everything above is a national average. The hospital you pick in South Carolina 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 29001.
One-off payment, no account and no subscription. You get a private link and an email. No medical records and no insurance card, ever.
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 South Carolina the office and hospital physician lines for this CPT differ by $76.84.
National vs South Carolina
Where South Carolina ranks for this CPT
Skin Biopsy (Punch) and how South Carolina is priced
South Carolina prices through one statewide locality with indices a bit below the national average, so Charleston, Columbia, Greenville, and the rural Pee Dee share the same Medicare-approved amounts. Rapid coastal growth has not led CMS to break out a separate locality, keeping the fee schedule uniform from the mountains to the sea islands. The single set of adjustments makes the statewide figures here directly usable anywhere in the state. Facility fees at hospital-owned locations remain the largest source of price variation for patients.
The state's medical firepower splits three ways: an academic medical center and strong hospital market in Charleston, the capital-region systems in Columbia, and a large Upstate network centered on Greenville. Retiree-heavy coastal areas like Hilton Head and Myrtle Beach have booming demand for Medicare-age care, while the rural I-95 corridor faces some of the state's worst access gaps. Some border residents use Charlotte or Augusta providers.
This procedure: A punch biopsy uses a small round cutting tool, usually 2 to 6 millimeters across, to remove a full-thickness core of skin down through the deeper layers. Dermatologists choose it over a shave when they need to see the entire depth of the skin, for example to evaluate a rash, a suspected melanoma, or an inflammatory condition. After a numbing injection, the punch takes under a minute, and the small hole is typically closed with one or two stitches that come out in one to two weeks.
What Is Skin Biopsy (Punch)?
A punch biopsy uses a small round cutting tool, usually 2 to 6 millimeters across, to remove a full-thickness core of skin down through the deeper layers. Dermatologists choose it over a shave when they need to see the entire depth of the skin, for example to evaluate a rash, a suspected melanoma, or an inflammatory condition. After a numbing injection, the punch takes under a minute, and the small hole is typically closed with one or two stitches that come out in one to two weeks.
What Affects the Cost
- –The separate pathology fee for processing and reading the full-thickness specimen is often the largest single charge on the bill.
- –Additional punches at the same visit are billed with add-on code 11105 for each extra lesion.
- –Because punch sites are usually sutured, a suture removal or wound check visit may generate its own charge if done as a distinct appointment.
- –Rash workups sometimes require special immunofluorescence or extra stains at the lab, which increases the pathology bill.
- –A biopsy done in a hospital-based clinic carries a facility fee on top of the physician charge.
Questions to Ask Before Booking
- 1.Why a punch rather than a shave biopsy, and does the choice change the cost?
- 2.Is my suture removal visit included, or billed separately?
- 3.Which lab reads the specimen and is it in network for my plan?
- 4.If special stains are needed for my rash, what extra lab charges should I expect?
- 5.How many sites do you plan to biopsy today, and what is the add-on charge per site?
Other featured procedures in South Carolina
Skin Biopsy (Punch) in other states
Skin Biopsy (Punch) in South Carolina: questions
Under 2026 Medicare rates, a skin biopsy (punch) in a doctor's office costs about $114 in South Carolina, with no separate facility fee. In a facility the national total is about $453 at a hospital outpatient department or about $130 at an ambulatory surgery center, because the facility is paid its own rate on top of the physician. South Carolina is a single Medicare locality, so the physician rate is the same statewide.
Not on the physician fee schedule. South Carolina 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 $23 for the office physician line or $7 for the hospital physician line in South Carolina. Medigap may cover that 20%. This is not the hospital facility fee.
In a doctor's office, $113.86 is Medicare's whole payment in South Carolina: 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 $37.02 and the hospital adds its own facility payment, bringing the national total to about $453. Services billed under other codes, such as lab work, are extra. South Carolina ranks #16 of 51 states on the office rate (6% below the national office rate of $121.25).