CPT code 17311: Mohs surgery, first stage, head/neck/hands/feet/genitalia2026 Medicare rate & RVUs in Alabama

In Alabama, Medicare pays $602.81 for 17311 in the office and $270.22 when it’s performed in a hospital or facility.

Check a contract rate as a % of Medicare · 17311 nationwide

Medicare allowed amount for participating (non-QP) physicians, before deductible, coinsurance and claim adjustments. Not a patient’s bill or a hospital charge.

What 17311 covers

Mohs micrographic surgery removes a skin cancer, usually basal cell or squamous cell carcinoma, in mapped stages. The Mohs surgeon excises the tumor, maps and color-codes the tissue, oversees frozen-section processing, and personally examines slides for peripheral and deep margins. Code 17311 covers the first stage and up to five tissue blocks for a tumor on the head, neck, hands, feet, or genitalia. It also covers tumors at other sites when surgery directly involves muscle, cartilage, bone, tendon, major nerves, or vessels. Mohs-trained dermatologic surgeons usually perform this work in an office.

Report one unit per distinct tumor’s first stage. Document the tumor site, biopsy diagnosis, stage maps, block count, and surgeon’s slide interpretation. Report additional stages with 17312 and each block beyond five in a stage with 17315; report qualifying defect repairs separately. The 0-day global period includes same-day preoperative and postoperative care. For multiple procedures in one session, CMS pays the highest-valued procedure in full and reduces other procedures subject to the multiple-procedure rule to 50%. Modifier 50 is inappropriate for 17311; assistant-at-surgery payment is prohibited, and co-surgeon and team-surgery arrangements are not permitted.

This summary was written with AI assistance from CMS physician fee schedule data and checked against the CMS billing rules shown here. Rates on this page come directly from CMS files.

How Alabama compares for 17311

Across 109 of 109 payment localities, the office rate for 17311 runs from $594.68 in Arkansas to $876.89 in San Benito County, CA. Alabama pays $602.81. The RVUs are the same everywhere; the geographic indexes change the dollars.

Every other payment area

17311 rates by state

Office rate range in each state. Select a state to see its payment localities.

See 17311 in every payment locality

How the 17311 rate is calculated

Each of 17311’s three RVUs is multiplied by a geographic index (GPCI) for the payment locality, added up, and multiplied by the conversion factor. Drag the indexes or enter a ZIP to see what moves the rate.

Payment rules and modifiers for 17311

The CMS indicators that decide how 17311 is paid alongside other services.

What modifiers do to the payment

When to use modifier 51

Codes related to 17311

Related codes aren’t interchangeable: bill the code that matches the service performed.

How 17311 has changed in Alabama

Price 17311 for an earlier date of service

Where the Alabama rate applies

Alabama is a Medicare payment area, not a city. Our Census mapping connects it to 595 cities and communities in Alabama. Some span more than one payment area; confirm with the service ZIP.

• Abanda
• Abbeville
• Adamsville
• Addison
• Akron
• Alabaster
• Albertville
• Alexander City

Browse all communities in Alabama

Where these rates come from

FeeBase calculates base physician payments from CMS work, practice-expense and malpractice RVUs, adjusted by each locality’s geographic indexes and the conversion factor. Services without a published rate are labeled, never given a made-up amount. Amounts are Medicare allowed amounts before claim adjustments: not a patient’s bill or a commercial rate.

CMS RVU26D · effective Oct 1, 2026 through the day before Jan 1, 2027

Open CMS sourceHow we calculate rates