Eli's Rehab Report

Reader Question:

Speech Evaluation

Question: We performed a speech evaluation on a stroke patient, and three days later, the doctor reported stroke progress as a change in condition, so he wanted to perform another speech evaluation. Can we bill for both during the same hospital admission? I dont find a speech re-evaluation code.

Chicago Subscriber

Answer: You are correct in noting that there is no re-evaluation code, but you can bill the 92506 (evaluation of speech, language, voice, communication, auditory processing, and/or aural rehabilitation status) again. There is no global period associated with this code, so unless a payer has a local medical policy preventing two evaluations within a certain time frame or hospital stay, it is a payable service.