One Response to “Why do physical therapists try and bill low level laser as infrared therapy?”

1. mistify on August 21st, 2009 4:58 am
   

   Saunas Feedback: I don’t use either and I’m not involved in billing, so I can only speculate.

   My best guesses are:

   Infrared CPT code can be used as long as it’s listed with a modified -22 to denote an “unusual modality”

   Laser is not billable under medicare, so for consistency in a clinic that sees a high medicare population, they may have eliminated the CPT code from their repitoire…fully realizing they are not going to get crap from Medicare anyway for a modality, but it would be “more legal” than billing it under Ther ex.

   I’m not saying it’ right
   …the whole CPT code system needs to be done away with anyway and causes more problems than it’s worth. When Medicare realizes that all the red tape they’ve created is costing more money to enforce than it is in reducing costs, it will change.

   …and hopefully your job will get a lot easier.

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