Behavioral health billing and coding
Behavioral health billing that follows the time rules and the carve-outs
Therapy and psychiatry claims depend on session time, add-on codes and behavioral-health carve-outs that route claims to a different payer than the medical plan.
What makes behavioral health billing hard
Time-based codes
Psychotherapy codes are chosen by documented session time, so notes must record it.
Add-on codes
Psychotherapy with an E/M visit uses add-on codes that are easy to miss or misuse.
Authorizations and carve-outs
Many plans route mental-health claims to a separate administrator with its own authorization rules.
Codes we see every day
Examples of the codes and modifiers our coders handle for this specialty.
| Code | What it describes |
|---|---|
| 90791 | Psychiatric diagnostic evaluation |
| 90834 / 90837 | Psychotherapy, 45 minutes / 60 minutes with the patient |
| 90833 | Psychotherapy add-on, 30 minutes, with an E/M service |
| 99214 + 90833 | Psychiatrist medication visit with psychotherapy |
CPT codes and descriptions are summarised for readability. Always code from the current code set and payer policy.
How we help
- Match psychotherapy codes to documented session time
- Capture add-on psychotherapy with psychiatric E/M visits
- Track authorizations and session limits per payer
- Send claims to the right behavioral-health administrator
Related services: Medical billing, AI clinical documentation, Revenue cycle management, Denial management