Your Guide to Medical Billing Codes

One important thing to know about billing insurances companies as a psychologist are the CPT codes. So what are the most widely used CPT codes? Well, there are three main ones. These include: a 90791, which is an intake session that is to be billed for your first appointment with a new patient only, a 90834, which is to be used for a 45-55 minute individual therapy appointment, and a 90837, which is a 56 + minute individual therapy session. It really is this simple when you are dealing with an individual therapy session. However, if you are dealing with family therapy, therapy with a family member/individual who is not present for the session, group therapy or something else, you will need to know further CPT codes.

How To Make a Diagnoses
So how do you know which diagnosis to use? Well, it is your duty, as laid out by the insurance companies and their subsequent claims, to submit the most up to date and realistic diagnosis you can for each session. One good tip for handling this is to always use a specified diagnosis. After the ICD10 / DSM-5 change, diagnoses that are not specific are repeatedly getting rejected by Medicare.

Checking Benefits and Eligibility
Another thing you may need to know about billing insurance companies for mental health services is how to check benefits and eligibility. There are several steps to this. First, you will call the insurance card’s customer service number (found on the back of card), verify mental health patients benefits and eligibility, and then exchange information. Of course there is much more to this process and much more to the mental health billing process in general, including: learning how to submit claims, how to verify the payment information and receipt of claims and more.

The Benefits of a Billing Service
This highlights just how important a billing service can be. You have several options when it comes to them, including: an in-house biller (in which you have control, but also high costs) or an outsourced service (in which you lose control and lower costs). However, there’s a way to have it all. With The Biller, costs are low and you retain control. Let The Top Mental Health Billing in Utah create and maintain a complete virtual billing office for your private practice.