Physical therapy often involves patient education. Physical therapists educate patients so that they can actively participate in their treatment and understand their condition and prescribed exercises. There is no specific CPT code for education, which can make physical therapy billing difficult. Even without a specific code, there is still a way that you can bill for patient education.
What Counts as Patient Education?
Any time you spend educating a patient or caregiver on a specific exercise or concept is considered patient education. Training a patient or caregiver on certain concepts can improve their healing and optimize your services. It can allow your patient to continue improving without your constant supervision. If the training you provide can help further their physical therapy journey, then it meets the criteria for patient education and should be billed by your billing company.
How To Bill for Patient Education
It is difficult to bill for patient education because it does not have a dedicated CPT code. Without a code, you can still bill for patient education. The rule for billing for patient education is to bill under the code that is most closely related to what you are teaching them. If you teach a patient how to do an exercise before allowing them to do the exercise themselves, you can add the education time to the exercise time and bill the whole thing underneath the appropriate CPT code.
There are also patient self-management codes that can be used under specific circumstances. These codes can only be used on patients who have specific conditions and have a prescription from a physician. You may have to use a preapproved standardized curriculum to bill using self-management codes. pittmanbilling1.bwpsites.com will make sure you meet these qualifications and will use the appropriate self-management codes, which are billed based on the number of patients that are taught at one time.
How To Document Patient Education
Patient education is not separately billable, but you should still document the educational services that you provide to your patients. This can help support the medical necessity of the education you provided. In your documentation, include what you taught your patient and how well they were able to learn and apply it. You can also use documentation to show that your expertise was necessary to help teach the patient.
Use a Physical Therapy Billing Service
Billing for patient education can be confusing because it lacks an individual code. Using a physical therapy billing service can help you avoid these questions. pittmanbilling1.bwpsites.com can improve your revenue cycle management and help you make more money by using our knowledge of CPT codes and payer policies.
With a qualified billing service, you can streamline payments for patient education and services. The software will provide a clear explanation of the services rendered and the format of billing. You can help your patients understand the billing process more quickly with a billing service. If you want to make more money and start getting paid for the skilled education that you provide to your patients, contact us to learn more.