Wiki Child psych med management

ebourgoin

New
Messages
1
Location
Fort Kent, ME
Best answers
0
I have a psychiatrist that is telling me he is doing the child's med management with just the parent. The child is not present. I know in OP offices this can not be billed. Is it the same with psych? He usually bills these with an office E/M but the office has been cancelling the apts. Is there anything I can charge for these?
 
No, this doesn’t appear to be a billable scenario under standard E/M coding, since the patient isn’t present. The only potential option might be CPT 90846 — Family Psychotherapy (without the patient present), 50 minutes — but only if all documentation and billing criteria are met. In lay terms, this code is used when "the provider meets with the patient’s family without the patient present to counsel the family on the psychological issues affecting the patient and the family."

That said, be cautious. Providers can fall into the trap of thinking, "Well, I spoke to someone about the patient, so I can bill for it." Unfortunately, the code books don’t care how busy a provider is — they care whether the proper criteria were followed to the letter. If it doesn’t meet the guidelines, it’s not billable
 
Top