CPT code 11302: Shaving of epidermal or dermal lesion, trunk, arms, or legs, 1.1-2.0 cm

Key takeaways

CPT code 11302 covers shaving of a single epidermal or dermal lesion measuring 1.1 to 2.0 cm. The listed sites are the trunk, arms, and legs.

The code is the third size tier in its series, not the second. A 0.6 to 1.0 cm lesion on the same sites is 11301.

Code selection across 11300-11313 turns on two documented variables only. Those are the anatomic group and the diameter measured before removal.

Shave removal codes take the lesion diameter alone. Unlike the excision codes, you never add surgical margins to reach the size tier.

In 2026 the code carries 1.02 work RVUs and 3.94 total non-facility RVUs. That is roughly $132 nationally before geographic adjustment.

Practice management software like Pabau keeps the site, the measurement, and the indication in one patient record. Your coder and any auditor then read the same note.

CPT code 11302 bills the shave removal of a single epidermal or dermal lesion on the trunk, arms, or legs. The lesion has to measure 1.1 to 2.0 cm.

That size band is where the code goes wrong most often. A 0.8 cm lesion on the forearm is 11301, and a claim that reaches for 11302 instead comes back for rework.

The American Medical Association (AMA) owns the CPT code set, and it splits the shaving family into three anatomic series. Each series repeats the same four size tiers. So the site you pick and the number you write both change what the claim pays.

Below you get the official descriptor, the selection matrix for the whole family, and the 2026 RVUs and payment amounts. Modifiers, ICD-10 pairings, documentation requirements, and the usual denial patterns follow.

CPT code 11302: definition and clinical description

CPT code 11302 describes the shaving of a single epidermal or dermal lesion measuring 1.1 to 2.0 cm. The listed sites are the trunk, the arms, and the legs.

The code sits in the Integumentary System section of the CPT manual. Its subsection, Shaving of Epidermal or Dermal Lesions, runs from 11300 to 11313. Per the AMA CPT code set, shaving means sharp removal with a blade or razor.

No full-thickness dermal excision is performed. The lesion comes off at or just below the plane of the surrounding skin, and the base is left to heal by secondary intention.

Chemical or electrocauterization of the wound is part of the same service. You do not report it separately, and no suture closure is involved.

Sending the specimen to pathology is optional and does not change the code. Intent does change it. A tangential biopsy taken for diagnosis belongs to 11102 and 11103 instead.

Two conditions must both be true before you report 11302. The lesion sits on the trunk, an arm, or a leg, and the measured diameter falls between 1.1 and 2.0 cm. Either one on its own is not enough.

How to choose between 11302 and the adjacent shave removal codes

The shaving family works as a grid. Three anatomic series run across it, and four size tiers run down each one. Pick the wrong row or the wrong column and you have the wrong code.

The anatomic series and size tiers

The trunk, arms, and legs series runs 11300 to 11303. The scalp, neck, hands, feet, and genitalia series runs 11305 to 11308. The face, ears, eyelids, nose, lips, and mucous membrane series runs 11310 to 11313.

Every series steps through the same four tiers. They run 0.5 cm or less, 0.6 to 1.0 cm, 1.1 to 2.0 cm, then over 2.0 cm. CPT 11302 is the third tier of the first series.

The matrix below carries the 2026 total non-facility RVU for each code, taken from the CMS relative value files.

The last column shows what a wrong tier costs. A 1.4 cm trunk lesion billed as 11301 gives up 0.46 RVU, which is roughly $15 per lesion at the 2026 national rate.

The wrong series costs more. The same 1.4 cm lesion on the cheek is 11312, worth 4.51 RVU, so coding it here surrenders 0.57 RVU.

Measuring lesion diameter correctly

Measure the lesion before you remove it, and record the greatest clinical diameter in centimeters. A ruler measurement in the pre-procedure note is the defensible standard.

Shave removal codes take the lesion diameter alone. Unlike the excision codes, you never add a surgical margin to reach the size tier.

Do not work backward from the pathology report either. Tissue contracts in formalin, so a specimen measured after fixation will usually undersize the lesion you treated.

Shave removal vs. biopsy vs. excision

Three code families can describe taking something off the skin. Technique and intent decide which one applies, and the diagnosis has nothing to do with it.

Medicare article A57113 is explicit on the first two rows. Do not report a shave removal code when the procedure performed was a tangential biopsy of the lesion.

The excision comparison matters at this size. CPT 11402 covers excision of a benign trunk or extremity lesion in the same 1.1 to 2.0 cm band, margins included.

11402 carries 5.12 total non-facility RVUs and a 010-day global period. 11302 carries 3.94 and a 000-day global period, so a related visit two days later is still separately billable.

CPT 11302 RVU values for 2026

Relative value units are the basis of Medicare payment under the Physician Fee Schedule. Work RVU covers clinician time and skill, and malpractice RVU covers professional liability.

Practice expense RVU covers overhead, and it splits by setting. Office overhead and hospital overhead are not the same thing. The figures below come from the CMS relative value file for calendar year 2026.

The two settings pay very differently. The office total is nearly three times the facility total, because the practice absorbs the tray, the room, and the staff time.

Check the current year before you use these numbers in a compensation model. The CMS fee schedule tool returns the locality-adjusted figures.

Reimbursement rates for CPT code 11302

Medicare payment is the total RVU multiplied by the annual conversion factor, then adjusted for your locality. For 2026 there are two conversion factors.

Qualifying alternative payment model participants are paid at $33.5675. Everyone else is paid at $33.4009. The national amounts below apply the second figure and carry no geographic adjustment.

Your actual payment will differ. Geographic practice cost indices move each locality up or down, and commercial payers set their own multiples of the Medicare rate. Treat these figures as a national baseline rather than a quote.

Medicare coverage and medical necessity

Medicare covers shave removal when medical necessity is documented, and not otherwise. Novitas billing and coding article A57113, which supports local coverage determination L34938, sets out the requirements for removal of benign skin lesions.

Cosmetic removal of a lesion that causes no symptoms and no functional problem is a non-covered service. Your own Medicare Administrative Contractor may publish its own policy, so check the one that applies to you.

• The lesion bleeds, is inflamed, is infected, or itches persistently
• The lesion causes pain, or catches on clothing, a strap, or a razor
• The lesion has grown or changed in a way that raises concern for malignancy
• The lesion restricts movement or interferes with a nearby structure
• The clinical indication appears in the physician note, not only in the diagnosis code
• For an elective cosmetic removal, the patient signs an Advance Beneficiary Notice before the service

The right skin assessment tools make this straightforward. The symptom that justified the removal is easiest to record while the patient is still in the room.

Bundling and NCCI edits

CPT 11302 carries a multiple procedure indicator of 2, so the standard reduction applies. The highest valued procedure of the session pays in full, and each additional one pays at 50 percent. That reduction is expected and correct, so it is not a denial to appeal.

The code also has a 000-day global period. There is no postoperative window, which is why a separately identifiable visit on the same day can still be billed with modifier 25.

The bilateral surgery indicator is 9. The bilateral payment rule does not apply to this code, so two lesions on two limbs are two line items rather than one bilateral claim.

National Correct Coding Initiative edits change quarterly. Check the current quarter before you append a bypass modifier to a pair that an edit has flagged.

Modifiers for CPT code 11302

Modifier choice depends on what else happened at the visit. Attaching the wrong one, or leaving out a required one, is a routine denial source in this code family.

The distinction between 51 and 59 is worth getting right. Modifier 51 says a second procedure happened, and modifier 59 says a bundling edit should be bypassed because the services were genuinely separate.

ICD-10 codes commonly billed with CPT code 11302

Every CPT claim needs a diagnosis code that establishes medical necessity. On the trunk and the limbs, this is mostly a laterality problem.

The limb codes split into right and left. The unspecified options, D23.60 and D23.70, invite a denial when the note plainly says which arm. The pairings below reflect the FY2026 ICD-10-CM code set.

Pick the code that matches the documented finding for that encounter. A generic code where a specific one exists is a standing audit flag, and on a limb it is also an easy denial.

Practices that record the site at intake have less work here. Structured SOAP charting puts the site and the finding on the chart before anyone opens the claim.

Documentation requirements for a shave removal claim

Documentation decides whether an 11302 claim survives review. The procedure note has to let a reviewer who has never seen the patient confirm the code without asking a question.

Structured medical documentation forms help here. They capture the required fields at the point of care instead of leaving them to be reconstructed at the billing desk.

• Anatomic site: name the exact location, such as “left posterior forearm” rather than “extremity”. It has to fall inside the 11300-11303 group.
• Lesion diameter: record the measurement in centimeters, taken before removal. State it plainly, for example “lesion measured 1.4 cm prior to removal”.
• Technique: state that the lesion was shaved with a blade or razor and that no full-thickness excision was performed.
• Clinical indication: say why the lesion was removed. Medicare needs bleeding, irritation, pain, or functional impairment, not a cosmetic preference.
• Number of lesions: describe each lesion separately when more than one is removed, with its own site and its own measurement.
• Pathology disposition: note whether a specimen went to the laboratory and where. If none was sent, one line of explanation is enough.
• Wound management: record whether the base was cauterized, treated with a hemostatic agent, or left to heal by secondary intention.

When tissue does go to pathology, the laboratory bills the examination itself under CPT 88305. Confirm the lab is submitting that line so your practice does not duplicate it.

Keep the note, the measurement, and the pathology result together in the patient record. HIPAA-compliant record keeping and audit readiness are the same filing job done once.

Common coding errors and how to avoid them

Denials on this code cluster into a short list. Each one traces back to a sentence missing from the note or a tier chosen from memory.

• Using 11302 for a 0.6 to 1.0 cm lesion. That tier is 11301. This is the single most frequent error on the code, and it costs 0.46 RVU each time.
• Coding a hand or foot lesion here. Hands, feet, scalp, neck, and genitalia are the 11305-11308 series, so a thumb lesion is never 11302.
• Reporting a shave code for a biopsy. If the intent was diagnostic, article A57113 sends you to the tangential biopsy codes 11102 and 11103.
• Adding margins to reach the tier. Margins belong to the excision codes. A 0.9 cm lesion does not become 11302 because 0.2 cm of normal skin came with it.
• Measuring after removal. The specimen shrinks, so the number in the pathology report will not match the number the code needs.
• Billing cosmetic removal without an Advance Beneficiary Notice. Without the signed notice, the practice usually cannot bill the patient for the non-covered service.
• Leaving the second lesion undocumented. Two lines of 11302 need two described sites, otherwise the second line looks like a duplicate.

Aesthetic practices see the cosmetic line tested most often. A working knowledge of med spa compliance requirements keeps the consent conversation and the billing decision in step.

How Pabau supports documentation for shave removal billing

Most 11302 problems start before anyone builds a claim. In a solo practice the clinician usually codes their own removals. In a group practice the note travels to someone who was not in the room. The measurement is what goes missing.

Practice management software like Pabau keeps both in the same patient record. The note your coder reads is the note the clinician wrote, so nothing has to be reconstructed later.

The practical fix is a procedure template that will not close with a required field empty. Pabau’s skin clinic software lets you build a shave removal form with four required fields.

The form asks for the anatomic site, the pre-removal diameter in centimeters, the technique, and the indication. That turns the two variables 11302 depends on into a step nobody can skip.

In a US practice, Pabau’s first job is the record. Your biller or billing service builds the claim. Claims management in Pabau pulls the details already on the chart into a pre-filled submission, then tracks its status.

What it does not do is choose the code for you. The tier, the modifier, and the diagnosis stay clinical decisions, which is exactly why the note has to carry the facts behind them.

When a reviewer asks for support months later, everything comes out of one system. The procedure note, the photographs, the diagnosis codes, and the audit trail sit together rather than in three places.

For dermatology EMR software users, that consistency is what shortens an audit response. The reviewer reads one file instead of a reconstruction.

Pairing patient record management with digital intake forms means the documentation baseline is built into every encounter.

Make the measurement part of the note, not an afterthought

Pabau keeps procedure notes, photographs, and lesion measurements in one patient record. Your coder never has to guess the site or the size behind a shave removal claim. Book a demo to see how dermatology and aesthetics practices set this up.

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Conclusion

CPT code 11302 has two conditions and no others. The lesion sits on the trunk, an arm, or a leg, and it measures 1.1 to 2.0 cm before removal.

Almost every denial in this family traces back to a note that missed one of those two facts. The rest come from a coder reaching for the neighboring size tier out of habit.

So measure first, name the exact site, describe the technique, and say why the lesion had to go. Those four lines decide the code, the modifier, and whether Medicare pays.

Pabau builds those habits into the encounter itself, so the documentation is right before the claim is ever created. To see how that works in a dermatology or aesthetics setting, book a demo with the Pabau team.

Continue your research

Is the trunk or limb lesion smaller than 1.1 cm? CPT code 11301 is the 0.6 to 1.0 cm tier of the same series, with its own RVUs.

Same size, but the lesion is on the face? CPT code 11312 covers the face, ears, eyelids, nose, lips, and mucous membrane at 1.1 to 2.0 cm.

Was the lesion excised rather than shaved? CPT code 11402 covers excision of a benign trunk or extremity lesion in the same size band.

Was the intent diagnostic instead of therapeutic? CPT code 11102 is the tangential biopsy code that article A57113 tells you to use instead.

Treating an actinic keratosis? CPT code 17000 covers destruction of a premalignant lesion, which is counted rather than measured.

Frequently asked questions