Ob-Gyn Coding Alert

Question: My ob-gyn performed Intensive Behavioral Therapy for Obesity for a Medicare patient. How should I report this?

Texas Subscriber

Answer: You need to be sure that you are meeting Medicare requirements. Medicare has established 2 codes; one for obesity counseling and one for screening:

• G0447 -- Face-to-face behavioral counseling for obesity, 15 minutes
• G0449 -- Annual face-to-face obesity screening, 15 minutes

Difference: Code G0447 represents intervention, while G0449 represents a screening.

Medicare has indicated that you should not bill G0447 with any other visit code, and G0449 will not be paid in addition to G0447 on the same date of service because the counseling code includes screening as a requirement.

Find out more: You can find the transmittal at URL: http://www.cms.gov/transmittals/downloads/R2409CP.pdf.