Once claims are verified as received, it’s time to hurry up and wait until payment. Often processing takes two to three weeks after receipt of the claims, plus the time to mail checks. We cannot and will not advice you to use a single diagnosis code, even though it is a very common practice for therapists to use one code for all of their patients (e.g. anxiety or depression).
The hardest part for providers conducting mental health billing is the variety of hoops that each insurance company makes the biller jump through. For counselors and other healthcare providers, time management becomes a major issue when one is trying to see patients and simultaneously file insurance claims. It takes time to learn what diagnosis codes work, and even where and how to submit each claim. Many providers find managing their own billing to be outside of their job parameters. If you want to spend less time doing your billing and more time working with clients, getting paid, then consider hiring our mental health insurance billing service. If you are struggling to find out the right modifier to use, consider hiring our mental health insurance billing service to code your insurance claims for you.
Mental Health CPT Codes: The Definitive Guide
You have all the necessary patient and session information to file claims. Now it’s time to check eligibility and benefits to ensure they have coverage that will reimburse you. Learn how to offload your mental health insurance billing to professionals, so you can do what you do best. Current Procedural Terminology (CPT codes) are used by psychologists and other mental health professionals to bill for their services to a private or government insurance provider. It is a billing document sent to patients treated for a range of mental health issues. The psychiatrist or mental health professionals charge their services on a per rate basis by offering fifteen, thirty, or one hour-long consultation in the medical field.
Make sure to submit the claim id number with all of the changes you need to make on your claims. Go back to your EHR, online portal, or paper claims and refile these claims. Perhaps you submitted online, check your portal to see if claims are accounted for in your account.
CPT Coding for Therapy
If you call in the morning and use our tips, you should be off the phone within 15 minutes. We’ll cover the four telehealth modifiers for insurance billing with an emphasis on the two most popular codes, mental health billing for dummies “95” and “GT”. The information provided in the good faith estimate is only an estimate, and the actual items, services, or charges may differ from what is included in the good faith estimate.
- For therapists that are on managed care panels or provide superbills to their clients, knowing your CPT codes is paramount to getting paid in full and avoiding insurance audits.
- Refile claims that have been received and rejected, you normally have a longer time to refile claims as corrected.
- If you are out of network and do not have a contract with an insurance company, then you can bill the patient for the remainder.
- Memorize the relevant codes and use google or other references to find the correct CPT codes for more unique scenarios.
- “Provider” is defined broadly to include any health care provider who is acting within the scope of the provider’s license or certification under applicable state law.
- On CMS 1500 forms CPT Add-on codes are simply added on a new line.
The second two codes, CPT Codes and 99416, are used to describe extended sessions for evaluation and management (E/M). We’ll also show you the 2020 Medicare extended session reimbursement rates for these add-on CPT codes. You’ll learn how to bill extended sessions for psychotherapy (90837), couples and family therapy (90847), and your diagnostic evaluations (90791). If you’d rather leave it up to the professionals, consider hiring out your insurance billing to a service like TheraThink. Additionally, the testing services now have a stand-alone code for the primary service, as well as add-on codes for each additional service and extra time. In the new codes, greater distinctions are made between whether the assessment is being given by a mental health professional, such as a psychologist or neurologist, or a technician.