Common Coding for Dietitians

Today we have a quick reference of common codes used by dietitians to file claims. There are two key code sets-

  1. Procedure codes (CPT)
  2. Diagnosis codes (ICD-10)

1. Procedure Codes

Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes are commonly referred to as "procedure codes". These codes are tied to one action and one provider. If you've seen a paper claim, you may know this as a service line.

Essentially, it's the way that we explain to the insurance company what you did with a client. Good news- as a dietitian you often only need to use 2 of them—initial and follow up. 

For Medical Nutrition Therapy, the following codes are used most often:

97802 - initial visit
97803 - follow up visit
97804 - group visit (less often)

If you use Healthy Bytes, you will just click the box for either "Initial", "Follow up" or "Group". If you're using another system or paper claims, these codes go in boxes tied to column- "24D". 

2. Diagnosis Codes

As of October 2015, you are required to use the ICD-10 Code set for diagnosis codes. Healthy Bytes was designed to match this new code set. One common code that we see a lot (especially for preventative services) is:

Z71.3- Nutritional Counseling

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics puts out a great list that covers most of the codes you'll need. You can find it here.

These codes are captured when you enter a new patient on Healthy Bytes or in box "21" and boxes for column "24E" on a paper claim. 

Tomorrow we will dive into the sometimes confusing world of  "G-codes". See you then!