> That's not true. From what I understand, sessions are coded e.g. "Intake" or "Meds check" when billed to insurance. They know roughly what you're talking about.
You are correct that CPT codes give some insight into what was provided, but you are wrong about what codes providers use in this case.
To check myself, I pulled my insurance provider's EOBs for my last two visit to a psychiatrist and my last visit to a psychotherapist. The codes were as follows:
Psychiatrist - CPT 99214 and 90833. Those are "office or other outpatient visit for the evaluation and management of an established patient, which requires at least two of these three key components: a detailed history, a detailed examination and medical decision making of moderate complexity", and "Individual psychotherapy, insight oriented, behavior modifying and/or supportive, 30 minutes" respectively.
So I don't think from these you can assume "this person was prescribed meds", necessarily. These are very similar to a standard doctor's visit billing code, or a therapy billing code (as below).
Psychologist - CPT 90837, which is "60 Minute Individual Therapy"
Both of these EOBs indicate the insurance paid the provider for the codes as billed. This is one example, but I'd be surprised to find it wasn't representative (that is, that my providers are not billing in generally accepted ways).
> You can't bill a meds check with no meds.
As you can see above, there isn't necessarily such a thing as a "meds check" CPT code. The codes don't give the kind of information you're imagining.
> And those sessions were probably billed as "intake", "evaluation" or the like. A psychiatrist cannot keep billing intakes and evaluations forever. Talk therapy is coded in its own way, and generally paid at a lower rate.
It is true talk therapy is a separate CPT code; it isn't true that it's always paid at a lower rate. The negotiated rate depends on the insurance company and provider's agreement.