Pediatric Coding Alert

Question: The mother of an established patient wants to adopt a 16-month-old baby from a foreign country. She wanted input from one of the pediatricians in our office regarding this child. Our doctor viewed a 10-minute video of the child and then spoke with the mother (in the office) for 20 minutes about her initial impressions of the baby from the video and other information supplied by the mother. Our question is, how do we code the visit, since the child is not adopted yet (not even in the U.S.)? If we cant use a sick-visit code, a consult code, or a prenatal code, how can we get paid for 30 minutes of the doctors time?
New York Subscriber

Answer: There are certain things that parents request pediatricians to do in their offices that may not be reimbursable by insurance. This may well be one of them. After your discussion, these parents may decide not to adopt the child. They asked for your professional opinion and your time. This should be billed directly to the parents at a rate that is appropriate for the time spent. Their adoption lawyer will do the same thing, and they will happily pay him or her. Adoptions are important events for the families, and the amount they pay you for advice is relatively small. Dont be embarrassed to be paid for what you do, and dont expect everything to have insurance reimbursement.