ASHA requested a clarification from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding the billing policy for treatment of Dysphagia and treatment of Cognitive Skills provided to the same Medicare patient on the same day.

The CPT codes in question are below:

• 97532: Development of cognitive skills to improve attention, memory, problem solving (includes compensatory training), direct (one-on-one) patient contact by the provider, each 15 minutes.
• 92526: Treatment of swallowing dysfunction and/or oral function for feeding.

"CMS responded to the letter, stating "...if an SLP separately performs the services described by CPT code 97532 entirely unrelated to the services described by CPT code 92526, the services may be reported separately." For these cases, the modifier -59 would be added to CPT code 97532."


To see the full article as reported in the ASHA Leader, click on this link: http://www.asha.org/Publications/leader/2012/120515/Bottom-Line--Co-Billing-of-Cognitive,-Dysphagia-Codes.htm

It's important to not only understand other disciplines when treating patients, but to also learn and take cues from them so you as a therapist can incorporate those skills to maximize your outcomes.  To not only work as an interdisciplinary team, but to treat the patient's body as a whole, take strategies from our clinician friends and implement them into our own practice.  Below is a PDF handout on Occupational Therapy from AOTA (American Occupational Therapy Association) describing the profound effects of the OT in the evaluation, assessment, and treatment process when working with children and adults with Autism.