Information about CPT codes

Written By Andrew Huber

As you might expect, we’re serious about documentation at Therapy Shelf. Our goal is to make writing accurate notes for therapists easy and quick. We also want to keep this experience as cost friendly as possible. Because of that, we need a brief discussion about CPT codes.

CPT is an abbreviation for “current procedural terminology.” These codes, usually 5-digit numbers, are created by the American Medical Association (AMA); they organize and classify medical procedures which greatly helps therapists communicate and record their work. This standardization makes describing a session type to insurance companies and other clinicians easy and convenient

Here are some examples of CPT codes that therapists often utilize in their work as listed on AMA’s website in March 2023:

  • 90837 Psychotherapy, 60 mins with patient

  • 90834 Psychotherapy, 45 mins with patient

  • 90791 Psychiatric diagnostic evaluation

  • 90847 Family psychotherapy (conjoint psychotherapy) (with patient present), 50 minutes

  • 90834-95 Psychotherapy 45 min, telehealth

  • 90853 Group psychotherapy (other than of a multiple-family group)

  • 90832 Psychotherapy, 30 minutes with patient

  • 90837-95 Psychotherapy, 60 mins, telehealth modifier

  • 99214 Office or other outpatient visit for the evaluation and management of an established patient, which requires a medically appropriate history and/or examination and moderate level of medical decision making.

While we would like to include CPT codes natively in Chronicler, the AMA has a copyright for these codes and charges other entities for their use, should it be non-clinical. If we offered CPT codes in Chronicler, we’d have to pass this additional cost onto our customers which is something we would prefer not to do for a 5 digit number.

Because of our commitment to keeping the costs low for our documentation software, we decided to not provide CPT codes in Chronicler. If the AMA changes its position, we will switch to providing CPT codes.

For more information, you can visit the AMA CPT® licensing overview page.

Andrew Huber

Clinical Cofounder of Therapy Shelf, LLC.

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