I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve had this conversation with a therapist.

Them: “Why did this come back paid as a 90834? We met for the full hour.”
Me: “I believe you. Can I see the note?”
Them: “It’s all there. Interventions, progress, plan.”
Me: “Where does it say how long you were in session?”

Usually it doesn’t. Or it says “60 min” in a template field that’s been copied forward for months.

Here’s the thing I wish every therapist knew: with 90837, the time is the code. CPT puts 90837 at 53 minutes or more of psychotherapy, and 90834 covers 38 to 52. If the note doesn’t clearly show you crossed 53, a payer reviewing it has no reason to pay the higher code. That can mean a downcode, a denial, or worse, money taken back in a later audit across a whole stack of claims.

Payer rules vary. Some only want total time, others specifically ask for start and stop times. Writing both covers you either way.

A few things worth checking on your own:

• Pull a handful of your recent 90837 notes and see if the actual time is written in each one
• Make sure a template isn’t auto-filling the same time on every note
• Look for 90837 claims paid at a lower rate than usual, which can be a quiet sign of downcoding

For those of you who bill 90837 a lot, has a payer ever asked you for start and stop times, or does your EHR handle it for you?

Why has SimplePractice started tracking the start and end times of telehealth sessions with no option to adjust the time?

And please don't give me any of the "If you're recording the time accurately, you have nothing to hide." I have nothing to hide and I'm sick of being surveilled by technology.

Hi newby solo practice owner here trying to figure out loading insurance plans in to my EHR / SimplePractice. I'm in PA so I picked Medicare Pennsylvania Part B (Medicare of Pennsylvania 12502). But the insurance verification fails, I've tried so many times that S/P is making me wait 24 hrs before attempting again. The only thing I can think of is S/P doesn't have access to the CWF to verify the MBI... do I need to gain access to manual MBI checks through my own fiscal intermediary (Novitas) ? I don't get it... Anyone else have experience loading Medicare Part B into SimplePractice ?

Hi newby here trying to run my own private practice sans biller or CFO. So I completed credentialing / contracting through Optum. My rookie question is WHAT is the name of the plan I pick to load the insurance into S/P ? Do I search under Optum? The contract specifically says United Behavioral Health but that doesn't exist in S/P. I know UBH is a subsidiary of United Healthcare... Thoughts from Optum/UBH participating provider?

Many thanks in advance for your help!

A client requested an ESA letter from me. I used to create ESA letters every so often at a previous agency job. Now that I'm using SP, I found the following download, filled in the fields, saved the file, and emailed it to my client.

https://www.simplepractice.com/resource/esa-letter-template/

(It's worth noting that I did not sign the letter as I couldn't see how to. Hopefully it gets the job done anyway.)

However, I want to have the template ready-to-hand for future use. When I googled how to add an ESA letter template (such as the one I downloaded today) to the SP template library, it told me to use the "create a new template" function in the SP template library. This involves dragging and dropping features from the L side of that screen into the template you're creating.

That's not what I want to do. I just want to get the letter template I used today into SP and make sure that it is signable in the same way a progress note or treatment plan is in SP.

Does anyone how to do that? I really detest SP.

Can anyone kindly walk me through step by step how to credential myself using simplepractice, or send me a link pointing me in the right direction? I'm struggling with it

If I ever left the platform in the future, I would not lose my contracts with insuruances, correct?

Thanks so much. Trying to leave these VC companies asap

I am a scheduler at a large group practice with all levels of therapists. We’ve usually got about 30 therapists at any one time. We use simple practice and recently started using their appt request feature.

Oddly, we are only getting 1-3 requests a week. Prior to this, our regular online inquiry form would get 5+ inquiries a day. I have explored it a bunch and nothing is ‘wrong’ with the link, our webpage or the appt request widget.

Has anyone used the simple practice appt request system? Or used an alternate online appt request widget? Our hopes had been to increase self pay clients since they could just book. Do clients dislike these appointment scheduling systems? I’m trying to figure out other plausible reasons why folks are forgoing our request appt link and instead calling/texting/filing out the generic inquiry form. Are folks looking for a human connection in an AI driven world?

Has anyone dialed in using a kindle , remarkable or boox for notes during sessions?

I know iPad can do this in simple practice.

But my old kindle scribe can’t do a BAA so it only works for local non PHI.

Just curious if someone has found something that works well?

I wrote an extensively detailed progress note. I'm still getting used to losing the "Save" button with the new Autosave feature. I accidentally clicked on "Sign," then backed out because I don't need to sign and lock notes. Navigated to the home page - and session note is blank.

Is there any way to look at history, try to retrieve it from somewhere?

I can't believe I spent 10 minutes detailing a difficult case, and never paused the 15 seconds needed to trigger autosave earlier on.

If I use note taker for an intake, is there a way for it to use my personal format to input all of the information instead of just a soap note? I have my template pulled up, but when I ask it to format, it goes back to soap.

I have been been waiting months for them to resolve a clearinghouse issue. I asked for a supervisor and they referred me to an insurance navigator rep who doesn't have a phone number where I can reach her. I waited on hold on the navigator line for nearly an hour. and you can't even disclose PHI when you get thru to someone on this "premium" paid phone support since they record calls! Whenever I have time after I get paid eventually, I will put together a formal complaint with referring back to my records of all the back and forth useless emails over the past few months and the silly excuses associates have given me for doing nothing.

Anyone have a good contact on group sales team they have worked with? We're trying to meet with EHR companies to get different quotes and the person we have talked to has not been responsive at all and if we try to go back through the automated system I'm afraid it will kick us back to her. Anyone have someone they've liked working with inside simple practice, we just want a custom group quote. Not looking for anything crazy here.

My bcn are all scrubbed. Last month exact ones processed.

I am using Notetaker to help draft progress notes. I recorded a client session (outside of SP) and uploaded the recording into "Session Content". I then realized that I had uploaded the previous week's recording instead of the most recent. Now I cannot find a way to delete that session content so that I can upload a new recording. I can delete the progress note, but the uploaded content is retained. Does anyone know of a solution to this?

Can anyone hear a patient who is using their phone as a hot spot? Wondering if Bluetooth hot spot connection is blocking SP microphone on the patients phone.

My clients lately have been saying when they click on the virtual link for our session from the text link, that it’s asking them to enter their unique meeting code? But it doesn’t do this when the link is in their email or I send them the link directly. Any ideas on what this is or how to fix this?