The chiropractic manipulative treatment codes include a pre-manipulation patient assessment. Additional E/M services may be reported separately using modifier 25, if the member’s condition requires a significant separately identifiable E/M service, above and beyond the usual pre-service and post-service work associated with the procedure.
Chiropractic Manipulative Treatment: CMT is a form of manual treatment to influence joint and neurophysiological function.
When similar or identical procedures are performed, but are qualified by an increased level of complexity:
Only the definitive or most comprehensive service performed should be reported
Only one CMT service of the spinal region (procedures 98940-98942) is eligible for payment on a single date of service.
Payment is limited to one clinically indicated and medically necessary physical medicine modality or procedure code per patient, per date of service.
Payment is allowed for one clinically indicated and medically necessary extra spinal manipulation code (i.e., 98943-51) in combination with a spinal manipulation code (i.e., 98940, 98941, or 98942) per date of service.
When multiple procedures are performed at the same session by the same provider, the modifier 51 may be appended to the additional CPT codes (excluding E/M codes).
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation: The selection of appropriate physical medicine modalities and procedures should be based on the desired physiological response in correlation to the stages of healing. In most conditions or injuries, utilization of one carefully selected modality or procedure in combination with CMT is adequate to achieve a successful clinical outcome.
97140, manual therapy techniques (e.g., mobilization/manipulation, manual lymphatic drainage, manual traction), one or more regions, each 15 minutes, will not be separately reimbursed when billed with 98940-98943 (CMT) for the same region. Modifier 59 should be used with 97140 when billed with a CMT code, but performed on a different anatomical region.
It is not appropriate to bill 97124, massage, for myofascial release. For myofascial release, 97140 should be reported and is reimbursable if it is not billed with a CMT code pertaining to the same anatomical region. When reporting or billing for 97112 (neuromuscular reeducation) and 97124 (massage) as well as all other physical medicine modalities and therapeutic procedures, the details of the procedure shall be recorded in the medical record, including clinical rationale, anatomical site, description of service, and time (as required by the selected procedure code).
TENS: When found to be medically necessary, the following codes are reimbursed for TENS when billed under the following codes:
• E0720
• E0730
