HCPCS Q4288: Skin substituteMedicare rate & RVUs

Medicare pays $127.26 for Q4288 nationally in the office. Local office rates run $109.31–$183.51.

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

What Q4288 covers

Q4288 identifies Dermabind CH supplied by surface area for use as a wound-covering tissue product. In outpatient wound clinics, hospital departments, and surgical settings, a clinician may apply the material over a prepared wound bed, including in wound care for diabetic foot or venous leg ulcers. The code represents the product quantity, not the clinician’s wound evaluation or application work. The treating surgeon, podiatrist, or other wound-care clinician documents the wound site and treatment performed.

Report Q4288 only with a qualifying primary application procedure; CMS treats it as an add-on and pays it within that procedure’s global period. Select the primary application code based on the anatomic site and treated area, and report Q4288 units according to the documented square centimeters of Dermabind CH. Records should identify the product, wound site, amount applied, and related application service. Q4288 is technical-component-only; a separate code covers interpretation.

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.

Where Q4288 pays more and less

The same RVUs, adjusted for each area’s costs. Open a locality for its calculation, history and nearby areas.

109 of 109 payment localities

Q4288 rates by state

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

How the Q4288 rate is calculated

Each of Q4288’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 Q4288

The CMS indicators that decide how Q4288 is paid alongside other services.

Q4288 compared with similar codes

How to choose

Q4287Wound product

Q4287 identifies the Dermabind DL variant; Q4288 identifies the CH variant. Match the reported code to the specific product supplied.

Q4284Wound product

Q4284 identifies Dermabind SL, while Q4288 identifies Dermabind CH. These are product-specific supply codes, not interchangeable descriptions of the same variant.

15271Skin substitute graft

15271 reports the primary wound application service when its site and area criteria fit; Q4288 reports the Dermabind CH product quantity used with that service.

Codes related to Q4288

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

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