CMS RVU26D · Effective 2026-10-01
Report the first Mohs stage, including up to five tissue blocks, for tumors at specified sites or surgery directly involving specified deep structures. Compare 17311 office and facility rates across CMS payment localities in Colorado.
Amounts below use the non-QP conversion factor for participating physicians. These are base physician payments before claim-level adjustments, not patient costs or total hospital charges.
Colorado has 1 payment locality in this comparison. Use the service location to choose the applicable amount. These are the supported base rates for the payment area shown below, using the same CMS release.
$693.62
1 of 1 localities have a supported rate.
Payment area: Colorado
One mapped payment locality.
$289.19
1 of 1 localities have a supported rate.
Payment area: Colorado
One mapped payment locality.
These are locality ranges, not averages or address-specific quotes. A facility-setting amount covers the physician service; it does not include a hospital’s separate bill. Choose a locality below to inspect its calculation, compare other payment areas, or price a percentage of Medicare.
Dermatologic surgery
Report the first Mohs stage, including up to five tissue blocks, for tumors at specified sites or surgery directly involving specified deep structures.
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.
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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.
Office rates for Colorado, from the same CMS release.
17313 covers the first Mohs stage for the trunk, arms, or legs without qualifying deep-structure involvement. Use 17311 for specified head, neck, hand, foot, or genital sites, or when surgery directly involves specified deep structures at any site.
17312 is an add-on for each stage after the first in a Mohs procedure begun with 17311. Report 17311 once per distinct tumor for its initial stage.
11642 covers conventional excision of a malignant lesion at specified facial sites when the excised diameter is 1.1–2.0 cm. Code 17311 requires the Mohs surgeon to map the tissue and personally examine frozen sections for complete margin assessment.
88305 may describe pathology examination of a distinct diagnostic specimen, such as a biopsy needed to establish the diagnosis before same-day Mohs surgery. Examination of the Mohs-stage tissue is included in 17311.
Find the payment area for your service address, then open its rate page for calculation inputs, release history and the percentage-of-Medicare tool. A city may cross payment-area boundaries; the ZIP lookup above helps resolve the location.
1 of 1 payment localities
Office / nonfacility
$693.62
Facility
$289.19
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Each RVU component is multiplied by its own geographic practice cost index (GPCI). The three adjusted components are added, then multiplied by the conversion factor. These are the inputs used for 17311 in Colorado.
PPRRVU2026_Oct_nonQPP.csv
1,646
GPCI2026.csv
37
| Component | RVU | Locality factor | Adjusted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physician work | 6.05 | × 1.012 | 6.1226 |
| Practice expense | 13.33 | × 1.064 | 14.1831 |
| Malpractice | 0.59 | × 0.781 | 0.4608 |
| Total RVUs | 20.7665 | ||
| Conversion factor | × 33.4009 | ||
Office / nonfacility rate, Colorado$693.62
| Component | RVU | Local GPCI |
|---|---|---|
| Work | 6.05 | 1.012 |
| Practice expense | 13.33 | 1.064 |
| Malpractice | 0.59 | 0.781 |
(6.05 × 1.012 + 13.33 × 1.064 + 0.59 × 0.781) × $33.4009 = $693.62
| Component | RVU | Local GPCI |
|---|---|---|
| Work | 6.05 | 1.012 |
| Practice expense | 1.95 | 1.064 |
| Malpractice | 0.59 | 0.781 |
(6.05 × 1.012 + 1.95 × 1.064 + 0.59 × 0.781) × $33.4009 = $289.19
The office and facility calculations use their respective practice-expense RVUs. The facility amount here is the physician fee, not a separate hospital or facility bill.
Use 17311 when the tumor is on the head, neck, hands, feet, or genitalia, or when surgery at any site directly involves muscle, cartilage, bone, tendon, major nerves, or vessels. Use 17313 for trunk, arm, or leg tumors without that deep-structure involvement.
Report the appropriate first-stage code once for each distinct tumor. Use modifier 59 when needed to identify a separate lesion, or XS when the lesions are on separate anatomical structures; the lower-valued procedure is subject to CMS’s multiple-procedure reduction.
No. The Mohs code includes the surgeon’s pathology work on the Mohs sections. Pathology may be separately reportable for a distinct diagnostic specimen, such as a same-day biopsy needed to establish the diagnosis before Mohs surgery.
No. A qualifying layered or complex closure, adjacent tissue transfer, flap, or graft may be reported separately. A separately reported repair may be subject to CMS’s multiple-procedure reduction.
Report add-on code 17315 for each block beyond five in the stage. The first five blocks are included in 17311.
Yes, when the E/M is significant and separately identifiable from the routine same-day preoperative and postoperative care included in 17311. Append modifier 25 to the E/M code.
FeeBase calculates base physician payments from CMS work, practice-expense, and malpractice RVUs, adjusted by each locality’s geographic indices and the applicable conversion factor. Unavailable or separately priced services are labeled rather than assigned a made-up amount.
Source: RVU26D. Effective 2026-10-01 through the day before 2027-01-01.
