Billing couple's addiction counseling

[slim]

Hi, what would be the best way to bill a couple's counseling? Both individuals see our therapists for theri individual sessions. They want to have a counseling session with both of their individual therapists (so two patients and two therapists). Is there a way that we can get credit for both therapists? One thought was if we bill as a group session, that rate will be better ($80 x 2 people) than billing one individual session ($120 x 1 person).

Thank you!

[Michele]

You could also consider billing 90847 for family therapy, but that doesn't cover both counselors.  I haven't come across this before so I'm not sure??  If the therapists are in network and the services require auth, make sure that the auth covers this. 

[slim]

Thanks, Michele. Do you think it's legitimate to bill the session as group and bill for two clients?

[PMRNC]

No, you can only get credit for ONE session. Carrier's won't pay for two in the same day, nor can you bill for two professional components PER session.

[rdmoore2003]

this is how we do it....
wife sees her counselor, husband sees his counselor (different than wifes)  if they need family therapy they see our marriage/family counselor and bills as 90847.   of course you will need to check with insurance to make sure family/marriage is covered.
90853 (group code) description is group psychotherapy (other than of a multiple-family group)

[Michele]

yes I agree, I don't think you can bill it as group - 90853.

[PMRNC]

They can but I think they are looking for BOTH therapists to get paid and that's not going to happen.  Wonder what happens when we add the "other woman, or other man" to the sessions. LOL  (little late week humor)

[Michele]

I agree with Linda, I don't think there is any way that both therapists will get reimbursed. 

Haha on the humor.

[Buglet10]

I was wondering if this was even ethical?  When we have 2 clients seeing separate counselors the separate counselors often discuss the situation but they have never had a meeting with both clients and both counselors.  Sometimes they will have a meeting with both parties and one counselor and this is billed as a 90847.  Perhaps the counselors could speak to each other but seems it would be a conflict of some sort if they were in the same room doing therapy.  What if they divulged something the other person said in confidence, seems strange to me and I've been doing this mental health stuff a long time.
Pati

[PMRNC]

I was wondering if this was even ethical?  When we have 2 clients seeing separate counselors the separate counselors often discuss the situation but they have never had a meeting with both clients and both counselors.  Sometimes they will have a meeting with both parties and one counselor and this is billed as a 90847.  Perhaps the counselors could speak to each other but seems it would be a conflict of some sort if they were in the same room doing therapy.  What if they divulged something the other person said in confidence, seems strange to me and I've been doing this mental health stuff a long time.

I would HOPE they had patient's sign something specific to that session..  otherwise I would think it would be a bit unethical. 

[Sportsmom]

We ran across this in my office, so what are couple decided to do was to pay cash for this session.  They thought it was more important than going through their insurance.  And then the therapist split the fee.
But I also made both clients sign a release for that session and then a copy of that session has to go in both their files.

We also have an LMFT on staff, sometimes he will see the couple separately, from their therapists to get a fresh view of the situation.