How to Ensure Part D Coverage for Your Medicare, Medicaid Patients

Q: I have a patient who is unable to come into the office because of physical health problems so I conduct her psychotherapy sessions via telephone. I do not provide medical evaluation and management unless I see her in person. Can I use the CPT code 90834 even though this code is generally used by nonphysician therapists?

A: You cannot use 90834 in this case; however, if you were seeing the patient in person, you would be perfectly correct in using this code when you provide psychotherapy with no medical evaluation and management. Since all of the psychotherapy codes are defined as being “face-to-face with the patient and/or family,” and in this case the therapy is being provided telephonically rather than in person, the only appropriate code to use is 90899, the code for an “unlisted psychiatric service or procedure.” When you use 90899, you should always identify what the unlisted service is.