Follow-up consultation billing and documentation

Frequently, bills are not submitted for follow-up visits for patients who h ave been evaluated psychiatrically on medical-surgical services. There ofte n is confusion regarding which procedure codes are most appropriate to use in billing. To help the consultant understand the documentation requirement s for various procedure codes, information from sever al sources was synthe sized and distilled. This paper should help minimize documentation errors a nd maximize reimbursement for clinical services. The authors have reviewed available billing choices, and clarified the documentation requirements for different procedure codes according to Medicare regulations. (C) 1999 Else vier Science Inc.