Mental Health CPT Codes, Explained: A Quick Lookup Guide for Therapists

Last updated: June 5, 2026.

Tiny Bomi plug before we get useful: Bomi handles billing, claims, denials, credentialing, and payer cleanup for therapy practices. This guide is for the moments when you see a code and think, 'Wait, what is that one again?'

Therapy billing codes are one of those things you do not need to think about every minute until you really do.

Most therapists use the same handful of CPT codes every week: 90791, 90834, 90837, 90847, maybe 90853.

But once you add intakes, couples work, family sessions, crisis visits, testing, telehealth, Medicare, Medicaid, prescribers, and group-practice workflows, the code list gets longer fast.

This is a practical lookup guide for mental health providers. It is not meant to replace payer rules, contracts, the official CPT codebook, or legal advice. It is meant to help you remember what a code usually means, when it usually comes up, and what to double-check before billing it.

CMS maintains a helpful list of commonly used mental-health-related HCPCS and CPT codes, including psychotherapy, family therapy, group therapy, crisis, testing, health behavior, caregiver training, ABA, safety planning, and digital mental health treatment device codes. CMS Medicare & Mental Health Coverage.

Copyright note: CPT codes and official descriptors are owned by the American Medical Association. This post uses plain-English summaries, not official CPT codebook language.

The Codes Most Therapists Use Every Week

If you only remember one section, make it this one. These are the codes many outpatient therapy practices see constantly.

• 90791: Diagnostic evaluation or intake without medical services. Usually used for an initial clinical assessment, history, symptoms, risk, diagnosis, formulation, and treatment planning.

• 90792: Diagnostic evaluation with medical services. Usually used by prescribers, not standard outpatient therapists who do not provide medical evaluation and management.

• 90832: Short individual psychotherapy. CMS time guidance places this in the 16-37 minute range.

• 90834: Standard individual psychotherapy. CMS time guidance places this in the 38-52 minute range.

• 90837: Longer individual psychotherapy. CMS time guidance places this at 53 minutes or more.

• 90846: Family therapy without the patient present. The work still needs to connect to the identified patient's treatment.

• 90847: Family therapy, and often couples therapy, with the identified patient present. Coverage depends on payer rules and documentation.

• 90853: Group psychotherapy. Payers may have group-size, authorization, telehealth, modifier, and documentation rules.

CMS guidance says psychotherapy codes 90832-90838 are time-based and that providers should document start and stop time or total time when time matters for coding. CMS psychotherapy coding guidance.

The Individual Therapy Time Codes

This is the simplest way to remember the individual therapy time codes:

• Under 16 minutes: usually not billable as standard psychotherapy.

• 16-37 minutes: 90832.

• 38-52 minutes: 90834.

• 53+ minutes: 90837.

The important phrase is actual therapy time. Not scheduled time. Not calendar block time. Not 'it was supposed to be an hour.' Actual time.

A 60-minute appointment that starts late and lasts 50 minutes is generally 90834, not 90837.

Intake Codes: 90791 vs. 90792

90791 is the standard therapy intake code. Use it when the session is primarily diagnostic evaluation: history, presenting problem, risk, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment planning, and clinical assessment.

90792 is the psychiatric diagnostic evaluation code with medical services. It is usually used by psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, and other prescribers when medical assessment is part of the evaluation.

Easy memory trick:

90791 = intake without medical services.

90792 = intake with medical services.

Family and Couples Codes: 90846 vs. 90847

The easiest distinction:

• 90846: family therapy without the patient present.

• 90847: family therapy with the patient present.

For couples therapy, many practices bill 90847 when there is an identified patient present and the work is tied to that patient's treatment. But payer coverage varies. Some plans cover it routinely. Some deny relationship counseling if the documentation does not connect the service to a covered diagnosis and treatment plan.

CMS describes covered psychotherapy as including family psychotherapy with or without the patient present when medically reasonable and necessary, with the patient's treatment as the primary purpose. CMS Medicare mental health coverage booklet.

Group Therapy Codes

• 90853: Group psychotherapy. One or more therapists provide psychotherapy to multiple patients in a group setting.

• 90849: Multiple-family group psychotherapy. Less common in routine private practice, but important for some family-based treatment models.

Group therapy is simple in theory and messy in real life. You still need to know whether the payer covers the group code, whether authorization is required, whether telehealth is allowed, what documentation is expected, and whether each client needs a separate note and claim.

Add-on and Special Situation Codes

These are codes therapists may see, even if they do not use them every day.

• 90785: Interactive complexity add-on. This is not a 'the session was hard' code. Documentation needs to support the specific complexity.

• 90833 / 90836 / 90838: Psychotherapy add-on codes used with an E/M service, usually in prescriber workflows.

• 90839 / 90840: Crisis psychotherapy and additional crisis psychotherapy time. These are for true crisis psychotherapy services, not simply a difficult session.

• 90845: Psychoanalysis. Less common, and payer coverage varies.

• 90880: Hypnotherapy. Often limited or non-covered depending on payer.

• 90889: Report preparation. Often not separately payable by many payers.

• 90899: Unlisted psychiatric service. Use cautiously and only when payer guidance supports it.

CMS says interactive complexity may be used with diagnostic evaluation, psychotherapy, psychotherapy with E/M, and group psychotherapy in appropriate cases. CMS also says crisis codes 90839 and 90840 are time-based and should not be reported with 90791 or 90792 for the same service. CMS psychotherapy coding guidance.

Prescriber-adjacent Codes Therapists May See

If your group has psychiatrists, PMHNPs, or other prescribers, you may run into E/M plus psychotherapy combinations.

The key distinction:

• 90832, 90834, and 90837 are standalone psychotherapy codes.

• 90833, 90836, and 90838 are psychotherapy add-on codes used with an E/M visit.

So if a prescriber provides medication management and psychotherapy in the same encounter, the billing may include an E/M code plus one of the psychotherapy add-ons. For a pure therapy session without E/M, you are usually looking at 90832, 90834, or 90837 instead.

Testing and Assessment Codes

Therapists may not use these every day, but group practices, psychologists, testing clinics, and neuropsychology providers will.

• 96116 / 96121: Neurobehavioral status exam.

• 96130 / 96131: Psychological testing evaluation.

• 96132 / 96133: Neuropsychological testing evaluation.

• 96136 / 96137: Test administration by a qualified professional.

• 96138 / 96139: Test administration by a technician.

• 96146: Automated psychological or neuropsychological test administration.

• 96127: Brief emotional or behavioral assessment, often used for screening tools.

Testing codes are not therapy codes with different numbers. They have their own rules around who can bill, what time counts, whether authorization is required, how scoring and interpretation are documented, and whether feedback is separately billable.

Health Behavior Assessment and Intervention Codes

Health behavior assessment and intervention codes are used when behavioral work is tied to a physical health condition, not primarily a mental health diagnosis.

• 96156: Health behavior assessment or reassessment.

• 96158 / 96159: Individual health behavior intervention.

• 96164 / 96165: Group health behavior intervention.

• 96167 / 96168: Family health behavior intervention with the patient present.

• 96170 / 96171: Family health behavior intervention without the patient present.

Think chronic pain, diabetes, cancer, cardiac disease, or another physical health condition where the behavioral work supports coping, adherence, adjustment, or health behavior change.

CMS lists health behavior assessment and intervention codes among commonly used mental-health-related codes and notes that certain HBAI codes can be billed by clinical psychologists, clinical social workers, marriage and family therapists, and mental health counselors. CMS Medicare & Mental Health Coverage.

ABA and Autism-related Codes

Autism and ABA providers often work with a different code family.

• 97151: Behavior identification assessment.

• 97152: Supporting assessment.

• 97153 / 97154: Adaptive behavior treatment by protocol.

• 97155 / 97158: Adaptive behavior treatment with protocol modification.

• 97156 / 97157: Caregiver or multiple-family adaptive behavior guidance.

These codes often come with authorization requirements, treatment-plan rules, supervision rules, technician rules, and payer-specific unit limits.

Caregiver Training Codes

Caregiver training is becoming more visible in behavioral health and Medicare billing. Use these only when the service really is caregiver training tied to the patient's treatment plan or care needs.

• 97550: Initial caregiver training.

• 97551: Additional caregiver training time.

• 97552: Group caregiver training.

• 96202 / 96203: Multiple-family group behavior management or modification training.

• G0539-G0543: Medicare caregiver training-related G codes.

This is not a general parent check-in code. CMS lists caregiver training codes and multiple-family behavior management or modification training codes among commonly used mental-health-related codes. CMS Medicare & Mental Health Coverage.

Safety Planning, Post-crisis Follow-up, and Digital Behavioral Health Codes

Some newer or less common codes show up around crisis prevention, follow-up, and digital tools.

• G0560: Safety planning intervention.

• G0544: Post-discharge follow-up calls after certain behavioral health or crisis encounters.

• G0552: Digital mental health treatment device supply and onboarding.

• G0553 / G0554: Monthly management related to a digital mental health treatment device.

Most standard outpatient therapy practices will not use these every day, but they are worth knowing because they show where behavioral health billing is heading: more care between sessions, more crisis follow-up, more digital treatment tools, and more payer-specific rules.

Integrated Care and Collaborative Care Codes

These usually show up in primary care, psychiatry, large medical groups, or collaborative care programs. They are not standard therapy-session codes.

• 99484: General behavioral health integration care management.

• 99492: First month of psychiatric collaborative care management.

• 99493: Subsequent month of psychiatric collaborative care management.

• 99494: Additional collaborative care management time.

• G0323: General behavioral health care management for certain mental health professionals.

• G2214: Shorter monthly psychiatric collaborative care management structure.

These services usually depend on team structure, consent, care plans, registries, time tracking, and who the billing practitioner is. CMS's Behavioral Health Integration booklet lists threshold times for these services and explains the care-management model. CMS Behavioral Health Integration Services.

Substance-use and SBIRT Codes

SUD programs, integrated care clinics, and some behavioral health practices may encounter these codes.

• G2011: Brief alcohol or substance misuse assessment and intervention.

• G0396: Alcohol or substance misuse assessment and brief intervention.

• G0397: Longer alcohol or substance misuse intervention.

• G2086 / G2087 / G2088: Office-based opioid use disorder management, counseling, and care coordination.

SUD billing is very payer- and program-specific. The same service may bill differently depending on whether the payer is Medicare, Medicaid, commercial, an MCO, or a state behavioral health program.

Medicaid and HCPCS H Codes

Commercial and Medicare therapy billing usually centers on CPT codes. Medicaid often introduces HCPCS Level II codes, especially codes beginning with H, S, or T.

CMS describes HCPCS Level II as a standardized code set used primarily for services, supplies, and items not included in CPT, and notes that these codes are alphanumeric. CMS HCPCS overview.

Examples therapists may see in Medicaid or behavioral health programs:

• H0004: Behavioral health counseling or therapy, often in 15-minute units.

• H0005: Alcohol or drug group counseling.

• H0015: Intensive outpatient alcohol or drug services.

• H0031: Mental health assessment by non-physician.

• H0032: Mental health service plan development.

• H2011: Crisis intervention.

• H2014 / H2019: Skills training or therapeutic behavioral services.

• T1017: Targeted case management.

• S9480: Intensive outpatient psychiatric services.

Annoying but important rule: Medicaid codes are local. A code that is common in one state may be unavailable, renamed, bundled, or modifier-dependent in another.

Telehealth Codes, Modifiers, and POS Signals

Telehealth is not usually a different therapy code. Often, the CPT code is still 90834, 90837, 90847, or another standard service code. The claim just needs extra information showing how and where the service happened.

• POS 10: Telehealth provided while the patient is at home.

• POS 02: Telehealth provided while the patient is somewhere other than home.

• Modifier 95: Commonly used by many payers for synchronous audio-video telehealth.

• Modifier 93: Audio-only service signal.

• Modifier GT: Older or plan-specific telehealth modifier still used by some payers.

• Modifier FQ: Medicare modifier used in certain audio-only contexts, especially FQHC/RHC workflows.

CMS says clinicians should use POS 02 for telehealth provided somewhere other than the patient's home and POS 10 for telehealth provided in the patient's home. CMS also finalized that Medicare telehealth services provided to patients in the home are paid at the non-facility rate starting January 1, 2024. CMS Telehealth FAQ.

HHS also notes that audio-only telehealth billing can require modifier 93 and/or Medicare modifier FQ for Federally Qualified Health Centers and Rural Health Clinics. HHS Medicare telehealth billing guidance.

Quick Lookup by Situation

• New therapy intake: 90791.

• Psychiatric intake with medical services: 90792.

• 30-minute individual therapy: 90832.

• 45-minute individual therapy: 90834.

• 60-minute individual therapy: 90837.

• Family session, patient absent: 90846.

• Family or couples session, patient present: 90847.

• Group therapy: 90853.

• Multiple-family group therapy: 90849.

• True crisis psychotherapy: 90839 plus 90840 if needed.

• Communication complexity add-on: 90785.

• Prescriber does therapy plus E/M: E/M code plus 90833, 90836, or 90838.

• Psychological testing evaluation: 96130 / 96131.

• Neuropsychological testing evaluation: 96132 / 96133.

• Health behavior work tied to physical health: 96156 / 96158 family of codes.

• ABA assessment or treatment: 97151-97158 family of codes.

• Caregiver training: 97550-97552 or related G codes.

• Safety planning: G0560.

• Medicare behavioral integration: 99484, 99492-99494, G0323, or G2214.

• Medicaid therapy or community behavioral health: often H, S, or T codes, state-specific.

Code Mistakes That Cause Real Problems

The most common mistakes are not exotic. They are boring.

• A therapist bills 90837 because the appointment was scheduled for an hour, even though the actual session lasted 50 minutes.

• A couples session goes out as 90847, but the note does not connect the work to an identified patient's diagnosis or treatment plan.

• An audio-only session is documented like a video session.

• A telehealth claim goes out with the wrong place of service.

• A group practice uses the right CPT code but the wrong rendering provider.

• A Medicaid claim uses a CPT code when that state program wanted an H code.

• A testing service is billed like therapy.

• A crisis code is used for a hard session that was not actually crisis psychotherapy.

These are normal workflow errors. That is why they are so easy to miss.

The Simplest Coding Rule

When you are unsure which code fits, ask four questions:

1. What happened? Individual therapy, family therapy, group, intake, crisis, testing, care management, telehealth?

2. Who was there? Patient, family, caregiver, group, prescriber, trainee, supervisor?

3. How long did it last? Especially for 90832, 90834, 90837, crisis codes, testing, HBAI, and care management.

4. What does the payer require? Authorization, modifier, POS, provider type, diagnosis, plan-specific rule, Medicaid-specific code?

That solves most coding confusion.

Bottom Line

Most therapists only need a handful of codes most of the time.

But therapy practices still run into a much wider code universe: intake, individual therapy, family therapy, group therapy, crisis, testing, health behavior work, ABA, caregiver training, SUD, integrated care, Medicaid H codes, telehealth POS codes, and payer-specific modifiers.

The goal is not to memorize everything. The goal is to know what each code is trying to describe, and to make sure the note, claim, provider, payer, and session all tell the same story.

Final shameless Bomi plug: Bomi helps therapy practices keep that story clean across claims, denials, EOBs, benefits, credentialing, CAQH, rosters, and payer follow-up. You do the therapy. Bomi helps keep the codes from turning into chaos.

Sources

• CMS: Medicare & Mental Health Coverage

• CMS: Psychiatric Diagnostic Evaluation and Psychotherapy Services

• CMS: Behavioral Health Integration Services

• CMS: Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System

• CMS: Telehealth FAQ

• HHS: Billing and Coding Medicare Fee-for-Service Claims

• Bomi Billing

• Bomi Groups