Millions of teenagers and adults in the United States struggle with behavioral health issues, with one in every five people (18 and older) who have a mental illness. Only about 45%, or about 20 million, of the approximately 44 million mature Americans with mental illnesses received mental health care the previous year.
Despite the growing demand for behavioral health services, professional providers find it increasingly difficult to compensate for their efforts fairly. Although it is pretty complicated to comprehend, behavioral health illness assessment and billing are critical to a patient’s overall health and the provider’s overall finances.
All this necessitates behavioral health billers to thoroughly understand what is and is not covered by each provider. As a precaution, most providers dial the carriers, which prolongs the process. Each of these factors necessitates the need for outsourcing behavioral health billing.
Coding Roadblocks in Behavioral Health
Being paid for the services you provide to patients is critical as a mental health clinician, but challenges with behavioral health coding serve as roadblocks.
Using the Same ICD-10 Code Frequently
Using the same code for each patient is neither recommended nor legal. Though entering an unspecified code would be an exception, a high rate of unspecified diagnosis codes would raise a red flag for your practice. The following are some of the conditions for such usage:
- ● Alcohol consumption, abuse, and dependence
- ● Drug use, addiction, and abuse
- ● Depression
Specific Codes That Raise Red Flags
This is considered a red flag when you bill the same diagnosis code (such as anxiety disorder) for all your patients. Too many specific codes for your services can even cause issues for your practice, including:
- ● A common issue with billing the 90837 code of individual psychotherapy is that the services provided must match the documentation.
- ● Although a payer source will reimburse clinicians for billing code 99215 for established patient visits, using it for patients several times in a row will raise suspicions.
- ● Billing the 90853 codes for group psychotherapy can be difficult as the clinician is billing several patients simultaneously.
Get Accurate Behavioral Billing with Info Hub Consultancy Services!
Unlock the Behavioral Health Coding Secrets
Knowing CPT codes is critical to ensure behavioral health billing accuracy, as insurance companies rely on them to determine the amount of reimbursement. Many of the challenges mentioned above can be avoided by outsourcing behavioral health coding in India to Info Hub Consultancy Services (ICS). Our experts follow a specific behavioral health coding and billing procedure to understand the codes and the subtle differences in the application.
To begin, striving for the highest level of accuracy is critical. Our team’s most dependable method is establishing a first-rate quality control process to reduce simple to complex coding errors. Keeping our team up to date on the most recent CPT changes and making it mandatory to consult the AMA’s manual are two of the best ways to ensure that the correct codes are used in your practice.
Enhance Your Revenue with ICS
Every year, billions of dollars are lost due to claims being dropped when they are denied or rejected. In-house behavioral health billers typically lack the expertise to quickly identify and correct the issue that resulted in the denial, so they simply let the claim expire unpaid. Otherwise, they would have spent more time sorting out a claim worth it in dollars.
Outsourcing behavioral health billing and coding to offshore medical billing companies like ICS is solely associated with revenue cycle management (RCM). You can rely on our behavioral health billing company’s expertise to ensure that all claims are filed correctly and on time. This can help you to avoid costly payment delays, thereby doubling your revenue.
It’s time to stay compliant and maximize reimbursement by partnering with the behavioral health billing and coding company in India – Info Hub Consultancy Services (ICS)!
