Reimbursement Rates-Prescribers make twice as much as non-prescribers

The following are reimbursement rates for mental health practitioners based on actual claims paid data from 2008. The vast majority of the practitioners in the sample were psychologists, social workers, and mental health counselors. Note the code 90805 is used exclusively by prescribers (psychiatrists and nurse practitioners) for a 20 minute med check.

Prescribing practitioners make about as much for a 20 minute session as non prescribers make for a 50 minute session.

CPT Code 90806 Sample size 14,940 $54.39
CPT Code 90801 Sample size 1950 $86.18
CPT Code 90804 Sample size 86 $31.15
CPT Code 90805 Sample size 148 $50.51

Credit Cards--The Basics

Credit cards are convenient for patients. For clinicians the upside of taking credit card payments is you get paid fast. The downside is the transaction costs of credit cards. But remember credit cards save the cost of labor, supplies, and postage that is involved in ordinary billing.

Credit cards often have the following costs: monthly statement fee (often $10 to $15), service fee (often $5 to $45), discount rate (1.6% to 4% per claim), and transaction fee ($.20 to $1.00 per claim). Some vendors also charge for setup or for equipment such as a card swipe.

If you are a small practice you want to cut down on the fees. Check out paypal which has no setup fee and no monthly statement or service fee. Discount rates start at under 3% (with $ .25 transaction) and scale down based on usage. Also, check out Google Checkout where you can get rates as low as 2% and $.20 a transaction if you use Google Adsense.

If you do alot of credit card business, the use of a swipe machine can cut the discount rate to well under 2%.

Some companies see mental health clinicians as marks. For instance, Professionalcharges.com has the following fee schedule: $98/year for membership; 3.25% discount; $.75 transaction.
Therapist Helper has a setup fee of $250. These are bad deals.