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K013, K033 & K002: What Can You Actually Bill With Counselling Codes?

Counselling codes are among the most valuable in family medicine, and among the most restrictive. K013 and K033 cannot be billed alongside any assessment code, which makes them behave unlike almost everything else in your bill book.

Here are the five rules that matter most.

1. K013 and K033 don't combine with assessments. At all.

This is the rule that surprises people. Educational Counselling (K013) and its follow-on code K033 cannot be billed with:

  • Any assessment code (A001, A003, A004, A007, A008, A905)
  • Any periodic health exam (K017, K130, K131, K132, K133, A002)
  • Any chronic disease code (K030, K029, K032, K037, K022, K023)
  • Any pregnancy code (P003, P004, P005, P008, A920)
  • IUD procedures (G378, G552) and tray fees (E430, E431, E542)

If the visit is genuinely a counselling visit, bill it as one. If it's an assessment with some counselling built in, it's an assessment. Trying to claim both on the same visit is a rejection waiting to happen.

2. After three K013s, switch to K033

K013 is capped at 3 per patient per 365 days. Once you've used all three, subsequent educational counselling visits are billed as K033, which has no annual limit. Both are time-based, so document your start and stop times.

The K033 is out-of-basket while K013 is in-basket. Checking a patient's counselling history before billing is the difference between capturing the right code and leaving money behind because of a rejection!

3. Pap yes, tray no

Here's a subtle one. K013 and K033 can be billed with a pap test (G365 or G394), but not with the accompanying tray fee (E430 or E431).

This is unusual, since pap and tray normally travel together as a pair. On a counselling visit, the pap is billable and the tray isn't. Billing the pair out of habit is exactly the kind of error that gets paid at the wrong rate rather than rejected outright.

4. What K013 and K033 can be billed with

The list is narrower than the exclusions, but it's useful:

  • Other mental health codes: K002, K003, K008, K014, K015
  • Addictions: opioid management (K682–K684)
  • Lab tests: G010, G040, G041, G042, G043
  • Vaccines: G462, G538, G590, G840–G848, G593
  • Injections and venipuncture
  • Paps: G365, G394 (tray excluded, per above)
  • Forms: K031, K035, K036, K038
  • Other: post-hospital visit (E080), MD-to-MD phone consult (K730)

5. Smoking cessation: fine with K013, not with K033

K013 can be combined with smoking cessation codes (E079, K039, Q042) as long as you show your times. K033 cannot.

It's an odd asymmetry between two closely related codes, and it's easy to carry a habit from one over to the other. If you've moved a patient onto K033, drop the smoking cessation add-on.

The interview codes are the flexible ones

K002 (Interview with Family), K003 (Interview with CAS), and K008 (Diagnostic Interview with Child and/or Parents) behave almost oppositely to K013/K033. They combine with any A or K code, with K013/K033 counselling, with tests, vaccines, and procedures, with smoking cessation codes, and with E080.

Two details worth holding onto: K008 is billed under the child's OHIP number, and K002 and K008 are both time-based, so document accordingly.

Stop guessing at combinations

Which counselling code applies, how many K013s a patient has left, whether the tray can ride along with the pap: Quip tracks the history and checks the pairings automatically before your claim leaves the EMR.

Book a demo or use our free version to see how Quip flags counselling code conflicts in real time, right inside PS Suite or Accuro.

Quip Medical builds AI-powered OHIP billing optimization for Ontario physicians. This post reflects billing rules as of July 2026; always confirm current requirements with the OMA Schedule of Benefits.