# Can a family medicine physician bill for the interpretation of a sleep study?



## terrigst (Aug 8, 2007)

Help! Can a family medicine physician bill for the "interpretation only" for a sleep study? And does he/she have to be certified to do so? Any special criteria? The CPT codebook is not really clear on this matter.....Thanks Everyone!


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## ahight (Aug 9, 2007)

Not sure about the certification but you can bill for the read.

Don't forget the pre-cert number...


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## terrigst (Aug 10, 2007)

Thank you for the info.


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## bgendron (Aug 27, 2007)

I know that your post was a few weeks ago but I hope this helps.

This is from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine:

"A physician who is a sleep specialist is certified in the subspecialty of sleep medicine and specializes in the clinical assessment, physiologic testing, diagnosis, management and prevention of sleep and circadian rhythm disorders. Sleep specialists treat patients of any age and use multidisciplinary approaches. Disorders managed by sleep specialists include, but are not limited to, sleep related breathing disorders, insomnia, hypersomnia, circadian rhythm sleep disorders, parasomnias and sleep related movement disorders." 

so unless your family practice doc has been through this type of training I would say no, he should not be reading or coding them for that matter.  I am sure that if a patient was sent to a sleep lab they either have a sleep specialist on staff or contract with one for the interpretation.


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