Billing built for behavioral health, not generic medical.
Psychiatry billing lives and dies on time documentation. Miss the threshold for 90837 by two minutes and it drops to 90834. Miss authorization on session 25 and you eat a month of visits. Add telehealth POS codes, integrated care overlays, and parity rule appeals and general billers give up. Our behavioral health coders don’t. Same 4.99% flat rate. Same dedicated manager.
Psychiatry CPT codes we handle every day.
Time-based therapy codes, medication management E/M, and psychotherapy add-on rules. Our behavioral health coders know exactly what documentation supports what code.
Psychiatric Evaluation
Diagnostic interview without medical services. Documentation of comprehensive history and mental status exam required.
Psychiatric Eval w/ Medical
Diagnostic interview with medical services. Higher reimbursement, requires medical decision-making documentation.
Psychotherapy, 30 Min
16-37 minutes face-to-face. Time documentation critical, but 30 minutes is the target.
Psychotherapy, 45 Min
38-52 minutes face-to-face. Most common therapy code. Sweet spot for most private payers.
Psychotherapy, 60 Min
53+ minutes face-to-face. Requires medical necessity documentation. Frequency limits by some payers.
Group Psychotherapy
Non-family group. Per-patient billing, typically 60-90 min sessions. Documentation of group composition required.
Where psychiatry billing usually breaks.
Three patterns account for most denials in psychiatry. Our specialized coders catch these before submission.
Time Documentation
90834 and 90837 downgraded when start and end times are missing from session notes. Auditors need to see the exact minutes.
Authorization Exceeded
Session 25 denied when payer required re-auth at session 20. Common with commercial payers doing utilization review.
Telehealth Errors
Wrong POS (place of service) code or missing modifier 95 for telepsychiatry. Rules changed post-COVID and keep evolving.
Each behavioral health setting billed differently. We handle all of them.
Coders matched to your setting. Outpatient psychiatry billing looks nothing like IOP/PHP billing, and integrated behavioral health has its own carve-out rules.
Outpatient Psychiatry
Individual psychotherapy, medication management, initial evaluations. Highest volume in most practices. Time codes carefully tracked.
Group Therapy
Group psychotherapy, family therapy, IOP groups. Per-patient billing with strict documentation of group composition.
IOP & PHP
Intensive Outpatient and Partial Hospitalization programs. Per-diem billing with strict hours and program requirements.
Medication Management
E/M-based psychiatric medication visits. Level 3-5 coding based on complexity. Add-on psychotherapy when applicable.
Telepsychiatry
Video-based individual and group sessions. POS code selection (02 vs 10) varies by payer. Modifier 95 required by most.
Integrated Behavioral Health
Collaborative care model (CoCM), behavioral health integration in primary care. New codes 99492-99494 for care management.
Behavioral health-specific rules we track for you.
Behavioral health has its own regulatory ecosystem. Mental Health Parity, telehealth extensions, session limits, and 42 CFR Part 2 confidentiality all affect billing. We track every rule that matters.
Parity violations identified and appealed
MHPAEA requires payers to cover mental health at parity with medical. When session limits, cost-sharing, or auth requirements exceed medical benefits, that’s a parity violation. We identify these on your denials and file parity appeals.
Telepsychiatry rules tracked per payer per year
Medicare and Medicaid telehealth flexibilities continue to evolve post-PHE. Some rules extended permanently, others reverting. Commercial payers vary widely. We maintain a current rulebook per payer.
Utilization review triggers per payer maintained
Aetna, Optum, BCBS, and Cigna each have different session thresholds for utilization review. Miss the review and every subsequent session gets denied. We track counts per patient per payer and initiate re-auth automatically.
SUD confidentiality rules honored in billing
Substance use disorder records have stricter confidentiality than HIPAA under 42 CFR Part 2. Billing coordination with primary care needs specific patient consent. We maintain compliant workflows so integrated care billing doesn’t break the rules.
Full-service psychiatry billing.
Everything a behavioral health practice needs, from outpatient therapy to IOP and integrated care.
Time-Based Coding
Session times captured, correct psychotherapy code selected automatically.
Session Tracking
Per-patient session counts with automatic re-auth at 80% utilization.
Telepsychiatry Billing
POS and modifier 95 rules applied correctly per payer.
Medication Management
E/M levels 3-5 with psychotherapy add-on codes billed correctly.
Parity Appeals
Denials reviewed for parity violations. Appeals filed with specific citations.
Dedicated Manager
Same person answers when you have session limit questions or need appeals filed.
“We’re a group practice with four psychiatrists and eight therapists. Our old billing team kept defaulting to 90834 because they said 90837 was too risky to bill. CureMed showed us the actual documentation requirements, retrained our providers, and we’re now billing 90837 correctly on qualifying sessions. Thirty-eight thousand a month we were leaving on the table.”
Common questions about psychiatry billing.
What is psychiatry billing?
Psychiatry billing covers claims for mental health services including psychotherapy sessions coded by time (90832, 90834, 90837), psychiatric evaluations, medication management, telepsychiatry, group therapy, intensive outpatient programs (IOP), and integrated behavioral health services. It requires precise time documentation and knowledge of session limits and parity rules.
What are the most common psychiatry CPT codes?
Common psychiatry CPT codes include 90791 (psychiatric evaluation without medical services), 90792 (with medical services), 90832 (30-minute therapy), 90834 (45-minute therapy), 90837 (60-minute therapy), 99213-99215 (medication management E/M), and 90853 (group psychotherapy).
Why do psychiatry claims get denied?
Top reasons include therapy time documentation gaps (37%), authorization exceeded for session limits (26%), and telehealth POS/modifier errors (18%). Concurrent E/M and psychotherapy add-on billing errors are another common issue.
Do you handle telepsychiatry billing?
Yes. Telepsychiatry billing rules vary widely by payer, especially post-PHE. We maintain a live rulebook of POS codes (02 for pure telehealth, 10 for home-based), modifier 95 requirements, and per-payer coverage rules so your telehealth claims stay clean.
Do you file Mental Health Parity appeals?
Yes. When payer denials show parity violations (session limits below medical benefits, higher cost-sharing, stricter auth requirements), we file MHPAEA-specific appeals with case-law citations. Success rates are high because payers know they’re legally required to comply.
Ready for billing that actually speaks behavioral health?
Send us three months of your therapy claims and denials. We’ll deliver a free psychiatry-specific audit within a week showing exactly where your revenue is slipping and how many parity appeals we’d file.