Wiki Need help---Nutritional Services. Please Help.

[tdavid]

Does anybody have familiarity with CPT 97802-97804 and/or S9452/G0270/G0271?

We are a family practice office and recently decided to add a life style consultant. As of right now, a medical assistant is performing the service and she is a certified lifestyle educator. The services include: consultation about nutrition, exercise supplementation, and overall wellness.

When reading the description for the above codes, it does not state whether the person advising needs to be registered or licensed?

If any body has any advice on this subject, please let me know or provide me with some contact information so I can call and get more information.

Thanks,
Tabitha
Oregon

 

[ljohns31]

We have just started this service. We are a CAH and have a Registered dietitian doing the MNT Services. She has just done one so far. I coded it with 97802 because it was the initial assessment. Section 300--300.6 of the manual is where I got the info.

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/manuals/Downloads/bp102c15.pdf

Hope this helps.

Lynne Johnson, CPC

 

[tdavid]

Does the person have to be a dietitian? I am a bit confused by the verbalization.(I have copied the the readings I found below.) As I mentioned, our girl is a medical assistant but a certified lifestyle educator. She is not a license dietitian but for what I understand she said she could become registered which is just a few classes/test online. So could we still bill the 97802 if she is not registered and not a dietitian? Or, should she be registered? If so, what would you say is the average charge for that?
Thanks for the input.

Billing Instructions for Medical Nutrition Therapy:
The initial episode of MNT is for 3 hours the first year and 2 hours each additional year, but additional hours may be covered beyond the hours typically covered under an episode of care when the treating physician determines there is a change of diagnosis or medical condition within such episode of care that makes a change in diet necessary.

MNT Service can be billed to FIs when performed in an outpatient hospital setting. The Hospital outpatient departments can bill for MNT services through the local FI if the nutritionists or registered dietitians reassigns their benefits to the hospital