Lcsw & lpcc

[sherriev]

Hi everyone! I need some advice. I've been coding for a Behavioral office for 5 years. During that time we only employed Psychiatrists and Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners. In the last few months, we've hired LCSWs and LPCCs. If a patient sees either the LCSW or LPCC first and later sees a Psychiatrist, is the patient considered new for the Psychiatrist? All are employed by the same clinic and billed under the same tax ID number. Thanks!

 

[Pam Warren]

If you bill an E&M for the psychiatrist, you can bill a new patient visit; the social workers are a different specialty, and also will not be billing out E&M services (they bill from the counseling codes in the medicine section).

Same with APRNs; even if they are psych APRNs, they are a different specialty (and level of provider) than the MD psychiatrist. Both could bill out NP visits for the same patient at their first encounter. The only instance you would have a problem is if you are billing incident-to the MD. Then you get only one new patient visit. The APRN would need to bill under their own NPI.