Coding for maximum reimbursement?

Although it is easy to submit a claim to insurance and get paid, are you sure you are getting the maximum reimbursement allowed? Just submit 90834 and as long as the patient is eligible you are pretty much guaranteed to get paid (unless the insurance company screws up the claim, save for another story). While that is true did you know it only takes a minimum of 53 minutes to allow for the use of 90837, and in some cases an insurance will pay 30% more!? Or that some insurance will not allow that code to be used unless an authorization is obtained, United Behavioral Health, for example, so the claim will deny to pay. In some cases an intake 90791 is paid less than a standard session, Cigna does this, due to an old obscure ruling by medicare that has since been updated, but some insurance companies still follow it. These are just a couple examples, other include add-on codes for complexity of sessions, after hour sessions, etc. that depending on the insurance may pay a fairly decent amount, in addition to the standard fee. So coding is simple, if you don't care about overall revenue, but if you do, it may benefit you to see what codes and what insurance will allow and pay. If there are any questions feel free to ask.