Reader Question: Speech Therapy

Question: We have a patient who regularly receives outpatient speech therapy. How should we bill for these recurring services?

Massachusetts Subscriber

Answer: Speech therapy falls under the repetitive services category within APCs. Certain revenue categories are considered repetitive services and should be billed monthly on a continuing basis. This is only for a patient who is seen repeatedly or regularly. Speech therapy should be paid under revenue codes 440-449.


Answers to You Be the Expert and Reader Questions provided by Rebecca Bennett, RHIT, outpatient coder, Heartland Regional Medical Center, St. Joseph, Mo.; Jan Wiens, RHIA, director of medical records, East Texas Medical Center, Athens, Texas; Mason Smith, MD, FACP, CEO of Lynx Medical Systems, Bellevue, Wash.; Joe Durney, RHIT, director, coding services, MedQuist Inc., Gibbsboro, N.J.; Mimi Tytko, RHIT, coding and billing compliance, Ellis Hospital, Schenectady, N.Y.; Jim Murdy, controller, Wheeling Hospital Inc., Wheeling, W.Va.; Susan Cook, psychiatry billing manager, University of Michigan Physicians Services, Ann Arbor, Mich.; Ruthie Burden, CCS, CPC, CPAR, Medical Records Coding Office, St. Joseph Hospital, Augusta, Ga.; Caral Edelberg, CPC, CCS-P, president of Medical Management Resources Inc., an emergency department coding consulting firm in Jacksonville, Fla.; John Turner, MD, PhD, medical director for documentation and coding, healthcare financial services at TeamHealth, an ED staffing firm in Knoxville, Tenn.; Carol Dodd, RHIT, representative for MedQuists Division of Coding and Information Services, a coding, consulting and transcription company in Gibbsboro, N.J.; Frances K. Keech, director of the nuclear medicine program and assistant professor, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Boston; and Gloria Peterson, Sheboygan Memorial Medical Center, Sheboygan, Wisc.

- Published on 2001-04-01