Book 15 minutes ← Back to Blog
JotPsych Notes
JotPsych Notes: market intel for clinicians

AI-drafted notes take 3 checks before you sign

Your signature makes the draft's codes yours. Before you sign, check the session time, the code, and each intervention the draft lists.

Your 2:00 session ended five minutes ago. The AI draft of your note is ready, and the draft suggests 90837. Your 3:00 is in the waiting room.

One 50-minute therapy session: the AI draft and the signed note
an illustration; the session and the note are invented
AI draft

Session: 2:00 to 2:50 PM, 50 minutes.

Cognitive behavioral therapy for panic attacks.

Suggested code: 90837

DRAFT
Signed note

Session: 2:00 to 2:50 PM, 50 minutes.

Cognitive behavioral therapy for panic attacks.

Code: 90837 90834

SIGNED

The AI draft suggested 90837 for 50 minutes of therapy. The clinician changed the code to 90834 before signing, so the claim's code matches the note's minutes.

  1. Read the session time. The code depends on the minutes, so start there. Compare the start and stop times in the draft with your calendar. Fix a wrong time before you do anything else.
  2. Match the code to the minutes. Noridian, a Medicare contractor, lists 90832 for 16 to 37 minutes of psychotherapy, 90834 for 38 to 52, and 90837 for 53 or more. Change the code when your minutes fall in another range.
  3. Check each intervention the draft lists. Read each line against what happened in your session. Delete any intervention you didn't use, like a breathing exercise you never taught. Then sign.

Medicare's reviewers can ask for the session times in your note. The Program Integrity Manual bars them from requesting your psychotherapy notes, but session start and stop times don't count as psychotherapy notes. Neither do your diagnosis, your treatment plan, or the type of therapy you gave.

What a Medicare reviewer can and can't request from a therapist
Medicare Program Integrity Manual, chapter 3, section 3.3.2.6, effective January 17, 2025
Can't request: psychotherapy notes

Notes that document or analyze what was said in a session

Kept apart from the rest of the record

Can request: the rest of the record

Session start and stop times

The type and frequency of treatment

Diagnosis, symptoms, treatment plan, and progress

The manual protects psychotherapy notes kept apart from the rest of the record, and leaves session times out of that protection. The times on your signed note are part of the record a reviewer can request.

Reviewers can still request your session times, diagnosis, and treatment plan when those items sit in the same document as your psychotherapy notes, the manual adds. The manual's coding rules tell the reviewer to lower the code and the payment when your note's minutes support a lower code than the one billed.

Indiana's House Enrolled Act 1271, in effect since July 1, 2026, bars a provider from using AI to submit a claim unless a person reviews the claim first.

Set the session time, and JotPsych's final review shows that time with the billing codes before you sign.

See JotPsych
Sources:
  1. Noridian Healthcare Solutions, Medicare contractor, Mental Health billing guidance, Jurisdiction E Part B.
  2. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicare Program Integrity Manual, chapter 3, section 3.3.2.6, Psychotherapy Notes, effective January 17, 2025, and section 3.6.2.4, Coding Determinations, effective August 27, 2020.
  3. Indiana General Assembly, House Enrolled Act 1271, Public Law 88, signed March 4, 2026, effective July 1, 2026.