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Procedure price report · Excision of skin lesion

Destruction of skin cancer on face, ear or lip, over 4 cm

CPT 17286the billing code this page is about

Destroys a single malignant skin lesion larger than 4.0 cm on the face, ears, eyelids, nose, lips, or mouth lining using freezing, burning, laser, or chemicals.

Hospitals typically charge $681 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 461 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $743. Most fall between $425 and $1,366 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
461
States
48
Filings dated
Mar 2023 – Sep 2026
Computed
September 25, 2026
Prices checked
through September 24, 2026

Median: half of hospitals filed less, half more — and it is a price some hospital actually filed. Average of the middle 60%: the mean of the prices between the 20th and 80th percentiles. We never publish the plain average, the lowest or the highest price: the extremes in hospital price files are chargemaster artefacts, not prices anyone pays.

What hospitals charge, from cheapest to most expensive

Cash price percentiles, outpatient, across 461 hospitals. Each figure is a price a hospital filed. 10th: one in ten hospitals charges less; 25th: a quarter charge less; Median: half charge less; 75th: three quarters charge less; 90th: nine in ten charge less.
10th25thMedian75th90th
$292$445$681$1,252$1,714

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 5.9× what the cheapest tenth charges ($292 vs $1,714).

How the prices are spread

$183 – $235: 7 hospitals$183$235 – $303: 33 hospitals$303 – $389: 18 hospitals$303$389 – $501: 49 hospitals$501 – $644: 75 hospitals$501$644 – $828: 73 hospitals$828 – $1,065: 58 hospitals$828$1,065 – $1,370: 33 hospitals$1,370 – $1,761: 50 hospitals$1,370$1,761 – $2,265: 20 hospitals$1,761median $681price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (416 of 461 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$183$2357
$235$30333
$303$38918
$389$50149
$501$64475
$644$82873
$828$1,06558
$1,065$1,37033
$1,370$1,76150
$1,761$2,26520

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$755
Median cash price$681
Cash as a multiple of Medicare0.90×

The Medicare figure is the national unadjusted OPPS rate for this code — what Medicare itself pays a hospital before local wage adjustment. It is a benchmark, not a price anyone is charged.

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $681.

Alaska: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWAIdaho: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMNIllinois: median $595 across 19 hospitalsIL$595Wisconsin: median $636 across 20 hospitalsWI$636Michigan: median $296 across 27 hospitalsMI$296New York: median $755 across 33 hospitalsNY$755Massachusetts: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: median $726 across 18 hospitalsOR$726Nevada: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $886 across 20 hospitalsIA$886Indiana: median $1,718 across 17 hospitalsIN$1,718Ohio: median $397 across 12 hospitalsOH$397Pennsylvania: median $440 across 20 hospitalsPA$440New Jersey: median $1,458 across 25 hospitalsNJ$1,458Connecticut: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceRICalifornia: median $1,714 across 24 hospitalsCA$1,714Utah: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureUTColorado: median $681 across 11 hospitalsCO$681Nebraska: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWVVirginia: median $473 across 10 hospitalsVA$473Maryland: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAZNew Mexico: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: median $429 across 14 hospitalsKS$429Arkansas: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: median $284 across 11 hospitalsTN$284North Carolina: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $445 across 14 hospitalsOK$445Louisiana: median $295 across 10 hospitalsLA$295Mississippi: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $531 across 23 hospitalsTX$531Florida: median $1,784 across 15 hospitalsFL$1,784
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $681. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
Florida FL15$1,784+162%$1,364 – $2,265
Indiana IN17$1,718+152%$425 – $2,280
California CA24$1,714+152%$1,714 – $1,714
New Jersey NJ25$1,458+114%$678 – $5,339
Iowa IA20$886+30%$510 – $886
New York NY33$755+11%$724 – $1,307
Oregon OR18$726+7%$653 – $870
Colorado CO11$6810%$653 – $751
Wisconsin WI20$636−7%$636 – $1,277
Illinois IL19$595−13%$425 – $1,097
Texas TX23$531−22%$513 – $685
Virginia VA10$473−31%$394 – $1,810
Oklahoma OK14$445−35%$445 – $445
Pennsylvania PA20$440−35%$168 – $1,066
Kansas KS14$429−37%$263 – $573
Ohio OH12$397−42%$356 – $973
Michigan MI27$296−57%$296 – $551
Louisiana LA10$295−57%$171 – $676
Tennessee TN11$284−58%$135 – $319
Missouri MO9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Washington WA9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Idaho ID8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
West Virginia WV8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Minnesota MN6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arizona AZ4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Georgia GA1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Utah UT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY1not enough hospitals filed a usable price

Hospitals like yours

The same distribution cut by the kind of hospital. Hospital type and ownership come from CMS; a hospital counts as part of a system when its price file is shared with at least one other hospital under the same brand. The national median is $681.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care352$685$397 – $1,441
Children’s3fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access106$644$425 – $1,277
Ownership
For-profit27$492$295 – $1,066
Government83$626$342 – $907
Non-profit351$721$434 – $1,441
System affiliation
Part of a system369$695$425 – $1,490
Independent92$633$413 – $969

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$943
Median cash price$681
Cash as a share of list, median hospital65%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 35%. The share is the median of each hospital’s own cash ÷ list ratio, over hospitals that filed both — not the ratio of the two medians above.

The same procedure, inpatient

266 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $636 and the average of the middle 60% is $748; most fall between $428 and $1,458.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 266 hospitals. Each figure is a price a hospital filed. 10th: one in ten hospitals charges less; 25th: a quarter charge less; Median: half charge less; 75th: three quarters charge less; 90th: nine in ten charge less.
10th25thMedian75th90th
$295$445$636$1,307$1,714

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 5.8× what the cheapest tenth charges ($295 vs $1,714).

Of the 291 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 266 gave a usable cash price; 13 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 12 a list price only.

How complete is this

461 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (12%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 503 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted461
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here30
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded1
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded11
Hospitals that filed this code503

Sections not shown for this setting

  • Since our last snapshot: there is no earlier snapshot at least 90 days older than this one yet.

We last checked these hospitals’ price files for changes between September 4, 2026 and September 24, 2026; the figures were computed September 25, 2026 from filings loaded through September 24, 2026. The percentiles and averages use only the “counted” row.

Related procedures

Part of the Excision of skin lesion family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as Destruction Mal Lesion F/E/E/N/L/M >4.0 Cm.

Method

Source
The machine-readable price files every U.S. hospital is required by CMS to publish, parsed per hospital. Nothing is surveyed, sampled or modelled.
What counts
One cash (self-pay) price per hospital for this code and setting. A hospital’s own filing can rule its number out — a placeholder, a “not applicable” note, a list price standing in for cash — and our plausibility checks can flag a price far below what every other hospital files. Both kinds are disclosed above and excluded from the statistics; on the compare tool a flagged price is still shown.
Statistics
Percentiles are discrete: each is a price some hospital filed. The average is the mean of the prices between the 20th and 80th percentiles. We never publish the plain mean, the minimum or the maximum. A state needs 10 hospitals and a segment 20 to show a figure; otherwise the row shows its count and no number. Medicare is the national unadjusted OPPS rate where one exists.
Names
Procedure names on these pages are our own plain-language titles, not the AMA’s copyrighted CPT descriptors. The code is the identity.

The full rules — sources, statistics, thresholds, limitations — are on the methodology page.

Download this page’s figures: JSON · CSV. Aggregates only — the per-hospital prices are on the compare tool.

Cite: HospitalRates.com, “Destruction of skin cancer on face, ear or lip, over 4 cm (CPT 17286) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-17286-destruction-of-skin-cancer-on-face-ear-or-lip-over-4-cm