Psychologists can help with medical conditions

Do you have a chronic medical problem? Do you have hypertension, arthritis, fibromyalgia, migraine headaches, head injury, stroke, chronic fatigue, RSA, asthma, chronic pain, sciatica, restless leg syndrome, incontinence, imbalance, diabetes, or have a history of heart attacks?

About 4 years ago psychologists were allowed to start billing for “health and behavior assessment and intervention services as applied to behavioral, social, and psychophysiological procedures for the prevention, treatment or management of physical health problems”. What this means is that if a person has a physical problem, not a mental health problem, he or she can now visit a psychologist for the management of it. This constitutes a milestone in the recognition of psychologists as health care providers.

If you are having a health problem and wish to add a psychologist to your team of doctors, you can call your insurance company and verify that they reimburse the CPT codes 96150, 96151, 96152, 96153, 96154, and 96155.

If your insurance company confirms that they cover these services, then I can expand the scope of how I work with you. You will need to have your MD write on a prescription pad your medical diagnosis and a referral to a psychologist for “Health and Behavioral Assessment and Intervention Services”. Since these procedures are billed under general medical benefits, there are fewer restrictions placed in contrast to behavioral managed care benefits, and often a reduced co-pay.

My intervention is directed at modifying the psychological, behavioral, cognitive, and social factors affecting your physical health and well-being. I have the opportunity to focus on increasing your awareness of how stress is affecting your illness, teach strategies to maximize your natural repair and regeneration cycles, teach how to improve your sleep, teach a method to improve optimism, and offer home biofeedback units that often reduces the need for pain or sleep medication.

Until now, almost all intervention codes used by psychologists involved psychotherapy and required a mental health diagnosis, such as under the DSM-IV. In contrast, health and behavior assessment and intervention services focus on patients whose primary diagnosis is physical in nature. A person does not have to have a mental health diagnosis to see a psychologist anymore.