Does Medicare cover Mohs surgery?
The removal itself: yes. Mohs micrographic surgery is billed under its own dedicated CPT codes, and Medicare Part B covers it as a physician service when medically necessary — a real, unambiguous benefit, and a different story from the DME checklists this site tracks for other surgeries. The gap comes one step later: elective, purely cosmetic scar revision after the cancer is gone is excluded by the same federal statute that excludes any cosmetic-only procedure, and none of the three items on this guide's own recovery checklist has a Medicare billing code at all.
Mohs micrographic surgery (CPT codes 17311-17315) is a covered Medicare Part B physician service when medically necessary.
Per CMS's own Medicare Coverage Database, Billing and Coding Article A53883 (guidance for Local Coverage Determination L34961): 'CPT codes 17311-17315 are reserved for the surgeon who removes a lesion, prepares, and interprets the slides.' This is a physician-service billing code, not a DME/HCPCS equipment code — the 68 Medicare equipment codes this site tracks (built for mobility and bathroom-safety equipment) don't include it. They cover a different kind of Medicare benefit.
Source: CMS Medicare Coverage Database, Billing and Coding Article A53883 (LCD L34961), read 2026-08-06
What isn't covered: scar revision for appearance alone
Medicare's general cosmetic-surgery exclusion — Social Security Act Sec. 1862(a)(10) — bars payment for cosmetic surgery outright. CMS's own Local Coverage Determination L39506, "Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery," spells out how that applies:
“Cosmetic surgery is performed to reshape normal structures of the body in order to improve the patient's appearance and self-esteem… Per the Medicare Benefit Policy Manual cosmetic surgery or expenses incurred in connection with such surgery, for the sole purpose of improving one's appearance, is not covered.”
— CMS Medicare Coverage Database, LCD L39506 (source)The same LCD draws the line that matters here: “Corrective facial surgery will be considered cosmetic rather than reconstructive when there is no functional impairment present.” UCLA Dermatology's own Mohs post-operative materials mention that a Mohs surgeon is “also skilled in scar revision techniques using laser technology to enhance the appearance of scars if necessary” — a real option some patients pursue afterward. Whether Medicare pays toward it comes down to that same functional-impairment test: revision done purely to improve appearance sits on the excluded side; revision addressing a documented functional problem (for example, a scar that restricts movement or eyelid function) can sit on the covered side. That's a case-by-case clinical determination between you and your surgeon, not something this site can answer in general.
The recovery checklist: zero Medicare billing codes
We checked the 68 Medicare equipment codes this site tracks and general HCPCS coding references. None of the three items on this guide's recovery checklist carry a billing code at all.
| Item | What we found |
|---|---|
| Small ice pack | No HCPCS code — not billed as DME, the same finding this site's knee, hip, hernia, and facelift guides all reach for ice/cold-therapy items. |
| Head-elevation wedge | No HCPCS code exists for a sleep-positioning wedge — same finding as this site's knee, mastectomy, and facelift guides. |
| Silicone scar tape / sheet | No HCPCS code — a cosmetic/scar-management product, not DME, same finding as this site's thyroidectomy guide. |
Nothing is missing here. This is the expected pattern. Mohs surgery isn't a mobility-limiting procedure the way a joint replacement is, so its recovery basket was never built around DME-billed equipment the way a walker or a hospital bed was. See the full recovery checklist →
Why this guide's coverage story looks different from this site's other guides
Most guides on this site track a checklist of DME (durable medical equipment) items against Medicare's HCPCS Level II code set — walkers, raised toilet seats, hospital beds — and the finding is usually thin or mixed coverage. Mohs surgery is different in kind: the procedure itself is billed under CPT (physician-service) codes, an entirely separate Medicare billing system from HCPCS DME codes. That's why this page can lead with a real yes on the surgery, even though the follow-up equipment story is the same $0-across-the-board finding as everywhere else on this site.
Go deeper
Sources
- CMS Medicare Coverage Database, Billing and Coding Article A53883, "Mohs Micrographic Surgery (MMS)" (guidance for LCD L34961) — source of the CPT 17311-17315 covered-physician-service finding; read 2026-08-06
- CMS Medicare Coverage Database, LCD L39506, "Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery" — source of the cosmetic-exclusion quotes and the functional-impairment test; read 2026-08-06
- Social Security Act Sec. 1862(a)(10) — exclusions from coverage — statutory basis for the cosmetic-surgery exclusion
- UCLA Health / UCLA Dermatology, Post-Operative Wound Care Instructions (PDF) — source of the laser scar-revision mention; read 2026-08-06
- Medicare's equipment fee schedule (CMS DMEPOS, July 2026) — none of the 68 Medicare equipment codes this site tracks apply to the items on this checklist
- Our free dataset (CC BY 4.0) — every coverage fact above in one downloadable file