# Billing for Suboxone Induction



## monalisa (Apr 30, 2009)

I have a doctor who wants to start doing Suboxone Induction and I was wondering how this would be billed.  These can take 1-3 hours in the office from my research and the doctor.  I am thinking 90809 with more than 1 unit or prolonged services with the 90809 depending on the amount of time it takes.  Any help would be great.  I have never billed for this so I am not sure the correct way to do this.
MonaLisa


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## LuluBarr (Oct 5, 2010)

I'm bumping this thread because I have the same question. Old biller had tried unsuccessfully billing suboxone induction with some H code...


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## 1073358 (Oct 7, 2010)

Can you describe exactly what the induction is?More details..


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## LuluBarr (Mar 4, 2011)

the physician administers suboxone orally in the office and provides nearly two hours of face to face time with patient to monitor the effects, but also discussing with the patient before and after administering drug the affects of use of previous medications and also educating patient on suboxone use. I have tried billing the drug with the E/M but it just gets denied....i have read about a SBI code for medicare but i don't totally understand its use, is that something that is used for suboxone induction?


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## LuluBarr (Mar 11, 2011)

I know there are alot of physicians doing these inductions so they must be getting paid for it somehow? I mean they spend ALOT of time with the patients...is it just 99212 + 99354 + possibly 99355? Is the drug even billable in the office because we have tried just 99215 w/ H0033 but got denials. Is H0033 supposed to be billed alone?

I think the only hcpcs code for buprenorphine is for injection, so that isn't really billable in this instance...


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## LuluBarr (Mar 24, 2011)

I'm guessing others are having a hard time with this as well then?


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## ohn0disaster (Mar 24, 2011)

A few links that I thought might help.

http://www.buppractice.com/howto/billing/pcps

https://www.naabt.org/documents/coding.pdf

Check the links provided on the page below for help.
https://www.naabt.org/providers.cfm


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## hthompson (Jun 29, 2011)

*Suboxone screenings*



ohn0disaster said:


> A few links that I thought might help.
> 
> http://www.buppractice.com/howto/billing/pcps
> 
> ...



I think the first link will help me a lot; however I still have a question on billing for the f/u visits for the drug screenings.  Pts come in a lot to see if they have the Suboxone in their system or if they have any other drugs of abuse in their system.  Can I bill for that 80100 and 80101 or did I read somewhere that it is included in the visit?

My last medical director said that it couldn't be billed due to being grant funded (I thought that's what was said).  My current medical director doesn't know anything about it, so I'm trying to do this properly.  

Thanks in advance for any responses!  This stuff is crazy!

The medical manual states that you cannot bill 80102 for a detox program because it's included in the per visit allowance.  Is this what I'm doing when screening for buprenorphine?


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