Name of Manual - Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota

Coding Policies and Guidelines (Medical Services)
Chemical Dependency
Assessment
Often providers perform chemical dependency assessments when a
court of law orders an evaluation or a family member requests one.
Under circumstances like these, providers may submit the
following diagnosis code:
V79.1, screening for alcoholism – use when an alcohol or
chemical dependency assessment or evaluation reveals no
illness, abuse, or dependency.
Services billed with a V79.1 code will apply to the member’s
chemical dependency benefit limit.
CHF Telemonitoring Blue Cross allows coverage for telemonitoring of patients with
congestive heart failure (CHF).
11-16
How CHF Telemonitoring Works
CHF telemonitoring utilizes a computerized scale that is placed in
the patient’s home. The scale weighs the patient and presents a
series of questions to be answered. The data is scored and
transmitted to the physician’s office. An exception report
documents and stores the patient data. Based on the preset
parameters (weight range/criteria) the clinic may be alerted to
contact the patient for additional evaluation and/or intervention.
Reimbursement Requirements
The telemonitoring scale is eligible only as a rental item. The
vendor is responsible for installation, maintenance and update of
the system. Daily monitoring of the transmitted data and
interaction with the patient is the responsibility of the clinical
practitioner(s). Blue Cross assumes that 30 cumulative minutes, or
more, are spent per month performing these activities. To
minimize administrative expenses, we request collection and
interpretation services to be billed on a monthly basis. However,
each interaction with the patient should be reported as one unit.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Provider Policy and Procedure Manual (06/20/12)