Name of Manual - Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota

Coding Policies and Guidelines (Behavioral Health)
Psychiatric
Consultation to
Primary Care
Practitioners
(continued)
11-24
Billing
Use the following code and modifiers to report this service:
99499 – Unlisted evaluation and management service. A
narrative must be submitted as well as the time spent for this
service. This should be reported in the NTE segment of the
837P electronic claim format as “(amount of time) spent in
telephone consultation with (name of psychiatrist).”
Appropriate modifiers as follows:
Basic Consultation: U4, HE
Intermediate Consultation: U4, U5, HE
Complex Consultation: U4, U6, HE
U4 – Case Management via Telephone
The U4 identifies the service as a telephone call.
HE – Mental Health Program
The HE modifier identifies the service as mental health.
Also add modifier -U7 to the appropriate code when the
primary care is provided by a physician extender.
The recipient must be present unless the recipient has granted
permission for the consultation to take place without the recipient
being present.
Authorization requirements, maximum utilization limits and
thresholds do not currently apply to psychiatric consultation codes.
Note: Telephone service codes 99441-99443 and 98966-98968 are
not allowed and will deny as provider liability if submitted.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Provider Policy and Procedure Manual 06/19/12