Choose 90839 for acute crisis intervention requiring immediate assessment and disposition planning. Choose 90837 for a routine 60-minute individual psychotherapy session.
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CMS RVU26D · Effective 2026-10-01
90839 Crisis psychotherapy Medicare reimbursement rates in New Jersey
Report this service for intensive psychotherapy addressing an acute mental health crisis that requires immediate assessment, intervention, and disposition planning. Compare 90839 office and facility rates across CMS payment localities in New Jersey.
Amounts below use the non-QP conversion factor for participating physicians. These are base physician payments before claim-level adjustments, not patient costs or total hospital charges.
What does Medicare pay for 90839 in New Jersey?
New Jersey has 2 payment localities in this comparison. Use the service location to choose the applicable amount. These are the supported base rates for the 2 payment areas shown below, using the same CMS release.
Office / nonfacility
$168.86–$174.29
2 of 2 localities have a supported rate.
Facility setting
$135.31–$138.64
2 of 2 localities have a supported rate.
These are locality ranges, not averages or address-specific quotes. A facility-setting amount covers the physician service; it does not include a hospital’s separate bill. Choose a locality below to inspect its calculation, compare other payment areas, or price a percentage of Medicare.
Psychotherapy
About 90839: Psychotherapy for acute mental health crisis
Report this service for intensive psychotherapy addressing an acute mental health crisis that requires immediate assessment, intervention, and disposition planning.
90839 covers an intensive psychotherapy encounter for a patient in an acute mental health crisis, such as severe emotional distress with urgent safety concerns. The clinician assesses the immediate situation, provides crisis-focused therapeutic intervention, and determines an appropriate disposition. Psychiatrists, psychologists, and other Medicare-recognized mental health practitioners may provide the service in settings such as an outpatient behavioral health clinic, office, or emergency department. This is crisis care, not simply a longer routine therapy session.
Select 90839 for the initial 60 minutes of crisis psychotherapy. Document the crisis presentation, assessment, interventions, the patient's response, time, and disposition. For additional crisis service, 90840 is the related add-on code, reported in 30-minute increments. CMS physician fee schedule values include work, practice expense, and malpractice components; the practice-expense values differ between office and facility settings.
Where the value comes from
- Work RVU3.58 · 75%
- Practice expense (office) RVU1.19 · 25%
- Malpractice RVU0.03 · 1%
21.6K
Medicare services in 2024 · #1117 by national volume
This summary was written with AI assistance from CMS physician fee schedule data and checked against the CMS billing rules shown here. Rates on this page come directly from CMS files.
90839 compared with similar codes
Office rates for New Jersey, from the same CMS release.
90839 reports the initial 60 minutes of crisis psychotherapy. 90840 reports each additional 30-minute increment and is used with 90839.
90838 is psychotherapy reported with a separately furnished E/M service. 90839 represents psychotherapy focused on an acute crisis.
Compare 90839 by payment locality
Find the payment area for your service address, then open its rate page for calculation inputs, release history and the percentage-of-Medicare tool. A city may cross payment-area boundaries; the ZIP lookup above helps resolve the location.
2 of 2 payment localities
Northern Nj →
Office / nonfacility
$174.29
Facility
$138.64
Rest Of New Jersey →
Office / nonfacility
$168.86
Facility
$135.31
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90839 billing questions
How is 90839 different from 90837?
90839 is for psychotherapy addressing an acute crisis that needs immediate assessment and intervention. Use 90837 for a routine individual psychotherapy session, even when it lasts 60 minutes.
Can 90840 be reported with 90839?
Yes. 90840 is the add-on for each additional 30 minutes of crisis psychotherapy beyond the initial service reported with 90839.
What should the note support?
Document the acute crisis, the assessment and crisis-focused interventions, the patient's response, the time spent, and the disposition or plan for immediate follow-up.
Can 90839 be used for an extended therapy appointment?
No. The encounter must involve an acute crisis requiring immediate clinical attention; duration alone does not make a routine therapy session a crisis service.
Which time belongs to 90839 versus 90840?
90839 represents the initial 60 minutes of crisis psychotherapy. Report 90840 for additional 30-minute increments when the documented crisis service continues beyond that initial period.
Where these rates come from
FeeBase calculates base physician payments from CMS work, practice-expense, and malpractice RVUs, adjusted by each locality’s geographic indices and the applicable conversion factor. Unavailable or separately priced services are labeled rather than assigned a made-up amount.
Source: RVU26D. Effective 2026-10-01 through the day before 2027-01-01.
