Q&A From APA's HelpLine Database: Billing for Phone Psychotherapy

Q. One of my patients has moved to another city, but wants to continue psychotherapy with me over the telephone. How do I code for this?

A. There is no CPT code for conducting psychotherapy over the telephone. All the psychotherapy codes are described as face to face with the patient. The only appropriate code to use would be 90899, “unlisted psychiatric service or procedure.” If you use this code, you should provide documentation describing that it is for psychotherapy over the telephone. There are timed codes for E/M services provided on the telephone (99441: 5-10 minutes; 99442: 11-20 minutes; 99443: 21-30 minutes). These codes can be used for medical discussion with a patient for whom you have not provided an E/M service within the past seven days and whom you would not be seeing for the reason discussed in the call.