Tobacco cessation counseling reimbursements have changed

Key Points

We occasionally provide counseling to our patients about alcohol, smoking, or tobacco use during their annual visits and sometimes afterward. We had been using G0375 and G0376 to report tobacco use cessation counseling, but recently all of our claims have been denied. Did anything change?

Yes, effective Jan. 1, 2008, two new CPT codes replaced the G codes that had been used for reporting those services. The new codes are 99406 "Smoking and tobacco use cessation counseling visit: intermediate, greater than 3 minutes, up to 10 minutes" and 99407 "Smoking and tobacco use cessation counseling visit: intensive, greater than 10 minutes." National Medicare reimbursement is $11.96 for 99406 and $23.55 for 99407.