Chiropractic services are covered on a limited basis depending on your insurance. Some basic insurance plans may not have coverage while others offer a certain amount of appointments covered per year. When you have an insurance claim sent from your chiropractor to a chiropractic billing service, the billing service will then forward the remainder of the bill, that insurance does not cover, to you. This bill can be difficult to understand. Here are some of the codes you may see on the bill and what they mean.
CPT Code 99203
One of the most common chiropractic codes you will see on your billing is CPT Code 99203. This code pertains to the initial visit with the chiropractor. You may find this listed as one code. You may also find this as a category with subcategory codes underneath. If there are subcategory codes, they are there to help break down the items that were included under the initial visit code of 99203. Depending on the chiropractic office, what is included in the initial visit may change to include certain procedures that are only done during that visit.
CPT Code 97110
When you visit your chiropractor, you will likely have some form of therapeutic exercise performed. This may be to help with joints or with stretching out certain areas of the body following any realignments you have. This exercise is not done at all appointments and can vary greatly depending on the patient's needs and the range of issues they are experiencing. Many offices do have this series of exercises listed under the same code for therapeutic exercise rather than individual listings for each part of the exercise.
CPT Codes 98940–98943
If you are seeing your chiropractor for specific spinal issues, you may see a set of codes listed on your billing. This set of codes deals with CPT codes 98940 through 98943. These codes deal with the various regions of the spinal cord. When the chiropractor performs an adjustment to a specific area of the spinal cord, that code is listed. You may have one of the codes or all of the codes depending on the appointment and the adjustments the chiropractor chooses to perform.
If you have any questions regarding your chiropractic bill, contact your chiropractic office or the chiropractic billing service. They will be able to explain the codes and answer any billing questions you may have. They can also research any codes or billings that you feel are inaccurate or pertains to procedures you do not believe were done at the time of the service.