How to Bill Insurance for Therapy

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Are you currently in the process of starting your own private practice for mental health services?

While your navigating your practice’s business plan, there’s one critical detail you may overlook; how to bill insurance companies for the mental health services you provide.

Mental health professionals face complex billing challenges, which can make it harder to collect money to pay yourself and keep the practice up and running.

But the best way to get paid for your therapy services, is to be empowered with knowledge. Here are some helpful tips and insights for how to bill insurance for therapy to ensure timely reimbursements.

1. Know Your Mental Health Billing Codes

An essential element to the mental health billing claims process are using Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes.

These codes are used alongside the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes to help insurance understand the full scope of mental health services rendered.

Some common CPT codes you should familiarize yourself with include:

  • 90832 – 30 minutes, Psychotherapy with patient and/or family member
  • 90834 – 45 minutes, Psychotherapy with patient and/or family member
  • 90837 – 60 minutes Psychotherapy with patient and/or family member
  • 90846 – Family psychotherapy without the patient
  • 90847 – Family psychotherapy, psychotherapy with the patient

To receive reimbursement from the insurance companies, knowing the appropriate psychotherapy CPT codes to use is a must.

Any errors may delay payments or even reject claims. To ensure you get paid fairly and on time, it’s best to partner with mental health billing experts to help ensure successful submissions.

2. Research Your Insurance Companies

Coverages vary depending on the insurance company and benefits plan. While you may have multiple clients, who use the same insurance provider, the services covered for one may not be covered for everyone. Or your client could have more than one insurance provider.

Familiarize yourself with each insurance companies billing guidelines both out of network and in network to avoid any unexpected billing surprises.

3. Check Eligibility and Patient Benefits for Therapy

Before you meet your client for their first session, verify the insurance information beforehand. Does the patient require pre-authorization? Has the client reached their benefits cap?

When you connect with the insurance company, be sure you know your patient’s personal information such as the name, date of birth, and subscriber ID. You can ask to verify mental health provider eligibility and benefits as well as for the patient’s deductible, copay, and coinsurance.

4. Submit a Claim to Insurance Sooner than Later

Without an organized process for timely and accurate claims submission, you can quickly get behind on getting paid.

It’s best practice to always submit your insurance claims within the allowed time, otherwise they will be denied. The time frame for submitting claims varies from insurance companies to insurance company, so it’s best to best to check with the individual insurance companies for further detail.

5. Get a Mental Health Billing Partner

Streamline your billing for therapy with Anchor Point Billing Solutions. We’re dedicated to helping private practices prosper.

Our team is experienced and equipped to handle claims filing with most major companies.  For more information on how we can simplify your mental health billing process and increase your revenue collections, get in touch with us today.

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