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.
Co-founder, JotPsych
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.
Session: 2:00 to 2:50 PM, 50 minutes.
Cognitive behavioral therapy for panic attacks.
Suggested code: 90837
Session: 2:00 to 2:50 PM, 50 minutes.
Cognitive behavioral therapy for panic attacks.
Code: 90837 90834
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.
- 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.
- Match the code to the minutes. Noridian, a Medicare contractor, lists CPT's time ranges: 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.
- 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.
Notes that document or analyze what was said in a session
Kept apart from the rest of the record
Session start and stop times
The type and frequency of treatment
Diagnosis, symptoms, treatment plan, and progress
Psychotherapy notes stay protected only when they're kept apart from the rest of the record. Before you sign, check each item a reviewer can request against the session.
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.
Your signature on a note shows you affirm "the note adequately documents the care provided," the manual says. The same rule applies when AI transcribes the note.
Set the session time, and JotPsych's final review shows that time with the billing codes before you sign.
See JotPsych- Noridian Healthcare Solutions, Medicare contractor, Mental Health billing guidance, Jurisdiction E Part B.
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicare Program Integrity Manual, chapter 3, section 3.3.2.4, Signature Requirements, and section 3.3.2.6, Psychotherapy Notes, both effective January 17, 2025, and section 3.6.2.4, Coding Determinations, effective August 27, 2020.