Psychiatry (Summer 1992)

Why This Topic Matters

Psychiatry services often involve multiple distinct activities on the same date of service, and this article provides the historical CPT framework used to distinguish them. It is useful for understanding legacy psychiatric coding concepts, documentation expectations, and the scope of services described in the 1992 CPT psychiatry section.

Article Sections

1. Summer 1992 pages 9-17

   Introductory coding commentary and overview of the psychiatry section in CPT. The section frames the scope of the article and the kinds of psychiatric services discussed.

2. Background Settings

   Describes common care settings for psychiatric services and how service location affects reporting. The section discusses outpatient, partial hospital, hospital, and residential care contexts.

3. Counseling

   Explains the relationship between counseling, psychotherapy, and evaluation and management services. The section also addresses how these concepts are distinguished in psychiatric care.

4. CPT Coding for Psychiatry

   Introduces the CPT psychiatry guidelines and their sequencing within the code book. The section addresses general reporting concepts for inpatient, partial hospital, and outpatient psychiatric services.

5. General Clinical Psychiatric Diagnostic or Evaluative Interview Procedures

   Covers general diagnostic and evaluative psychiatric procedures, including consultation-related concepts and testing-related services. The section focuses on how these services fit within psychiatric assessment workflows.

6. Special Clinical Psychiatric Diagnostic or Evaluative Procedures

   Discusses special diagnostic procedures used in psychiatric evaluation when ordinary communication or standard interview methods are not sufficient. The section also includes record review and psychological testing topics.

7. Psychiatric Therapeutic Procedures

   Reviews therapeutic psychiatric services, including interactive and individual psychotherapy topics. The section covers multiple psychotherapy formats used in psychiatric treatment.

8. Psychiatric Somatotherapy

   Addresses somatic and medication-based psychiatric management services and electroconvulsive therapy topics. The section also touches on monitoring and anesthesia-related considerations at a general level.

9. Other Psychiatric Therapy

   Summarizes additional psychiatric therapy services such as hypnotherapy, environmental intervention, family communication, reporting, and unlisted services. The section covers broader nonstandard psychiatric service categories.

10. Other Procedures

    Identifies unlisted psychiatric services and procedures used when no specific code is available. The section notes the need for special reporting in uncommon situations.

11. Summary

    Provides a high-level recap of how distinct psychiatric services are reported on the same date of service. The section reiterates the importance of documentation and local payer practices.