Wiki Using 90837 for couple's counseling????

[ldonigan]

I do billing for a therapist and she insists that this is what they use for couple's counseling. I corrected her with the 90847 but she insists this is the one that gets paid and there's some "loophole" where you can bill it. She says that they bill those visits this way because insurance will always cover 90837 and they don't always cover 90847. Has anyone had any experience with this? I've been doing therapy billing for years and I don't feel right about coding them this way.

 

[KMSschool]

I had a clinician who would see the patient with his mom and want to use 90837 because she said the focus was entirely on the individual patient and that there was some loophole where checking in with the mom for the first 5 minutes and using the rest of the time with the individual (son) made this okay. I agree that it does not seem like the correct way to code the session. I saw this blog on simple practice that talks about this.

https://www.simplepractice.com/blog/billing-couples-family-therapy/

 

[sumithratc]

We can bill 90837 with 90785

 

[djolly]

I agree with you. The 90847 is the appropriate code to use for couples therapy. Unless there is one patient that has a distinct diagnosis and the therapist is documenting why they need to have the spouse in the room for the patients treatment.
Similar to KMSschool stating that the mother was present for the child's session. That is acceptable.