90846

[mpl]

Hello!
I'm a biller in WI for mental health care providers. I have a provider who primarily sees children in her office. Occasionally she will see the child's parent in a separate appointment (without the child) on the same day, using 90837 or 90834 for the child, and 90846 under the child's name, for the parent's visit. She doesn't do this frequently, and I haven't had any problems with billing these two codes for the same client on the same DOS as of yet. That said, the provider is now asking if she can see the parent separately for a 50 minute appointment, after the child's appointments for the next 7 appointments in a row. I am not a coder, so I'm not sure if this is something that can or should be done.
The provider then asked if instead, the parent could become a separate client herself, and then we could bill 90834 or 90837 for those appointments. Is this ethical? Does it depend on what the focus of the therapy sessions are? So, if the provider was seeing the client's parent strictly for the benefit of the child...it wouldn't be ethical. But if the provider was seeing the client's parent to cope with the stress of the child's condition...it could be justified?
Any help or input would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

[Michele]

I know from strictly a billing standpoint that the parent and child can have separate individual therapy sessions on the same date.  However, I cannot attest to if it is ethical or not.  Only the provider can do that.  It really could be either way.  The parent may need individual therapy to help them change/adjust the way they handle/deal with the child.  Or the parent may be the problem and need independent therapy.  But again that is something only the provider can tell you.  Sorry but this isn't something that can be determined simply based on the information below.