Group Counseling for individual family members

[dokeef01]

Hello,

Can you bill 90847 for each sibling member of a family? The service starts out with the child and then at the end the mother joins the session to discuss the results of the session and to add any other information. Or it is an initial session in which the history and all is given and the mother is present to assist with this. The mother joins each individual sibling and they bill family counseling for each one of them.

Thanks,

Deborah

 

[1073358]

No, you would only bill one time for the patient. The rest of the people are there as part of therapy for the patient

 

[dokeef01]

Clarification

Oh sorry, I was not clear. The LPC sees one sibling for an hour and brings the mother in at the end of the session. Then she counsels another sibling and brings the mother in at the end of the session. The LPC bills for two family counseling sessions. They appear to be individual to me but with the mother in at the end of the session I am unclear.

 

[1073358]

Take a look at the notes for the vist. If the major majority of the visit was spent with patient alone, I would bill as single.

If the dr spends most of the visit counseling both, then do family. Bill whatever the documentation best reflects. That is the driver of your code selection.

 

[Jenny8675309]

I agree with 1073358 and in addition, the session should be billed under the person in which the session was about. So if the session is about the child and done over 50% of the session was about that one child and then the mother comes in and talkes about the child in the family it is still about that child and more than 50% of time was spent alone with that child then it would be an individual session. Not family.