I’m a surgeon so I naturally had to fact-check this. It looks like the CPT code is to indicate a “screening for underlying mental health conditions.” Calming a patient down because they’re crying during an office procedure isn’t enough to justify that code, unless they took the time to actually go through, say, a depression inventory with screening instruments and scores. Frankly that sounds like more work than excision of the mole, and I will happily jettison that $11 to not risk being accused of fraud for improper coding.
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It’s a mad, mad world…
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I’m more confused by how they can add 6 occurrences of 0.1 and come up with .06
So I guess you get a discount?
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Yeah, I’ve never been able to figure out how a for-profit insurance industry could ever do anything but increase costs and decrease quality of care. Oh wait, that’s because it can’t.
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I hate when people discount my emotions 
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Not at all, because the medical incompetence charge is a completely separate code. And if you complain about it, there’s a separate code/charge for that too.
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This needs all the hearts!
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Looks like the full description of the code is Emotional Assessment, so they are not technically charging for the patient having the emotion but the medical team’s reaction to a signal that may indicate pain control isn’t sufficient.
Which is still totally bogus IMO; it’s egregious to charge extra for simply noticing what your patient needs!
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I was looking for this article to link! Very relevant.
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Or didn’t communicate with the patient that something unpleasant or invasive was about to happen, or the doctor or staff said something insensitive, or the patient had a bad reaction to anesthesia, or they somehow mishandled the patient. Lot of ways the medical side could fuck up, they certainly don’t deserve a tip when they do so.
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Where the fuck does the misogyny end?!
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At least she got the volume discount, 20% off on tears
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This code would be appropriate for a situation like this:
Your ADHD patient comes in for a routine medication check. They mention they’ve been having some nightmares and can’t sleep well. You ask them if they’ve eaten recently. They say they don’t have the energy to.
You give them a standard depression and anxiety inventory. They scored really high, so you refer them to a psychologist/psychiatrist for starting treatment for depression/anxiety.
Now you use that code to tell the insurance company that you did an emotional and mental health evaluation, and get your $11 fucking dollars.
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I’m not familiar with mentegram. Is it always as cynical?
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that’s cheap, i know someone who charges three figures to make folks cry 
Have you ever had to pay to park at a hospital? Same thing.
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I’m really hung up on the fact that it was 20% crying that day.
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Where is @anon29537550 when we need him?
I am no doctor, but I’ve been through some painful procedures that I feel as the patient had properly administered enough local anesthetic, and then even more. I think there is a certain point of saturation where you can’t make it any number than it already is.
ETA: My last tooth extraction took an hour and a half, in which I had to get up and walk it off at least 3 times. The dentist said I was very brave.
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