Mental Health Billing - 3 Things You Should Know About

Mental health billing involves multiple billing of the same patient until complete recovery. Like other specialties, mental health billing is quite different, and even physicians can't set a time limit for treating patients. This makes the billing complicated to the medical practice and a lot of confusion can arise in assigning the right codes. More than anything, among the types of services offered under mental health, pre-authorization, unbundling concerns, and the size of the staff and their availability, mental health billing facilities are often on a negative side compared to other healthcare professionals.

Behavioral health billing takes time and requires physicians to sit and understand their medical billing process that results in a lack of time spent towards patient care where mental health treatment requires more time of physicians spending with patients.

#1: Check patient’s insurance and coverage details twice or thrice

Insurance and coverage verification of benefits is generally a crucial one for the majority of healthcare practices, and mental health practices are not least in it. You should check your patient’s insurance and coverage details at the beginning of the treatment and let them know which part of their treatment will be covered and which one will not; therefore, they will be prior aware of their incurring expenses. By doing so will make you predict your payment and initiate claims for on-time reimbursements.

But remember that verification of benefits requires close communication with your insurance-providing company and getting appropriate information to your patients. Otherwise, the trust you try to build in your patients may go in vain.

#2: Thoroughly understand CPT codes

CPT is called common procedural technology codes and the codes are used to determine the amount of reimbursement given to healthcare facilities. When it comes to mental health practices offering multiple services or even the same services multiple times, it is critical to understand the approach of mental health physicians and know the CPT codes associated with the respective treatment.

Behavioral health practitioners come across two types of codes as E/M (Evaluation management) and psychiatric evaluation codes. E/M codes should be used upon the evaluation of a new medical issue providing three important documentations like history, examination, and medical decision-making.

Psychiatric evaluation codes are used to determine the diagnostic assessment and sometimes can include E/M services as well, but the time calculated for both the sessions may vary. To reduce the risk of claim rejections, you should know how to use them efficiently.

#3: Understand and practice how to submit claims properly

Like how codes are important for proper reimbursements, clearly understanding the claims before the submission is also important. Depending upon the insurance company, the claim format may change and submission also takes a toss. Therefore, know the expectations of insurance form filling and ensure you file claims within the preferred time provided by the insurance company. This will avoid claims rejections and help your practice manage denials successfully.

Conclusion These are the common behavioral health billing tips that as a healthcare service provider, you should know and follow. To understand the complete billing process of mental health, you need an expert billing company’s help to break all the billing woes with your practice. 24/7 Medical Billing Services can be your ideal medical billing company in the USA easing out the complexities involved in behavioral and mental health billing. Contact any of our expert coders to give scalable solutions to your medical billing queries, at +1-888-502-0537.

Read More: 3 Proven Tips to Reduce Denials for Mental and Behavioral Health Billing