New Reimbursement Codes For Opioid Abuse Telehealth Treatment

As telehealth becomes more and more common, especially for treatment of substance abuse disorders, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid are introducing new ways to charge for this type of care. In 2020, there are three new codes you can using when billing for telehealth treatment of opioid addiction:

HCPCS Code G2086

This code allows you to charge for office-based treatment of opioid addiction. Services that fall under this code include:

• Treatment plan development

• Care coordination

• Individual or group therapy

The patient must have received these services for at least 70 minutes in the first calendar month of starting treatment.

HCPCS Code G2087

This code covers follow-up care after delivering the care listed above. It covers the same services for at least 60 minutes of care in a subsequent calendar month. For instance, if you delivered the services under code G2086 for 70 minutes in February, then performed 60 minutes of follow-up care in March, you would use this code.

HCPCS Code G2088

This code covers continued follow-up services. You can use this code for each additional 30 minutes of care beyond the patient’s first 120 minutes of treatment. There are not calendar month requirements on this code.

All of these codes do not require the patient to be present in person for services. In fact, patients can be at home when these services are provided and no longer have to be in a hospital, office or under other medical supervision.

In addition to these code changes, CMS now allows you to gather just one patient consent for multiple services instead of a new consent with every new service. This ruling saves a lot of time and makes furnishing telehealth services easier, especially for discharged patients.

How Your Facility Can Use These Codes

These codes allow your facility to bill for new, faster ways to follow up with patients, extending their care and improving patient outcomes. Thanks to the SUPPORT Act passed in 2019, your patients can receive therapy services at home, removing barriers to care such as need for transportation or time required off of work to travel.

You can also improve your bottom line by continuing to earn income even after your patient is discharged from the facility. To add telehealth services to your facility that are easy for your providers to use, set up a private room with fast and secure Internet access. Your therapists can use these rooms to connect with your patients and bill for the sessions using the appropriate new codes.

Telehealth services may also allow your providers to see more patients in a day. You may be able to incorporate telehealth into your electronic health record, reducing charting time. Providers who offer care at multiple facilities may also be able to cut out travel time by seeing patients via telehealth.

Learn more about how your facility can offer telehealth services, use new codes and increase your bottom line. Contact the experts at Datapro billing for a consultation.