ClaimCarePro
Behavioral health billing, nationwide

Mental Health Billing Services

Mental health billing services cover claim coding, benefit verification, authorizations, payment posting and denial work for therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, ABA providers and substance-use programs. ClaimCarePro provides mental health billing services with credentialing on the behavioral panels included.

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~95%
First-pass clean claim (established accounts)
6%
of collections — ongoing billing fee
24–48 h
From signed note to submitted claim
30+ yrs
Combined billing experience

The codes payers audit

Psychotherapy is billed by documented minutes

The session code is decided by start and stop times in the note, not by the appointment length. Bill above the documented band and the payer recoups it; bill below it and you give the revenue away.

CPT 90832

Psychotherapy, 30 min

16–37 minutes documented

CPT 90834

Psychotherapy, 45 min

38–52 minutes documented

CPT 90837

Psychotherapy, 60 min

53+ minutes documented

CPT 90791 / 90792

Diagnostic evaluation

92 adds medical services (prescribers)

Add-on and modifier rules change by payer: interactive complexity (90785), crisis sessions (90839 / 90840), the E/M + psychotherapy add-ons prescribers use (90833 / 90836 / 90838) and telehealth (modifier 95, POS 10 or 02) are all checked per payer before submission.

What our mental health billing services include

Psychotherapy and E/M coding

Time-band psychotherapy codes (90832 / 90834 / 90837), diagnostic evaluations (90791 / 90792), family and group sessions (90846 / 90847 / 90853), crisis codes, and the E/M + psychotherapy add-on pairs psychiatric prescribers bill (99213 + 90833).

Benefit verification with the carve-out

Mental health benefits often sit with a behavioral carve-out, not the medical plan. We verify the right payer, the session limits, the authorization rules and the telehealth coverage before the first visit.

Authorizations for testing and higher levels of care

Psychological and neuropsychological testing (96130–96139), ABA assessment and treatment (97151–97158), IOP and PHP programs — tracked from request to approved units so sessions are never delivered unpaid.

Denials, appeals and patient balances

Medical-necessity denials, 90837 frequency reviews, missing-modifier telehealth rejections and parity disputes worked to resolution; copays and deductibles collected with clear statements, not awkward conversations in the waiting room.

Credentialing on behavioral panels

Being on a medical plan is not the same as being on its behavioral panel. We handle enrollment with the carve-out networks and commercial payers so new clinicians can bill from their first week.

Reporting by clinician and payer

Collections, denial reasons, sessions billed vs paid and days in A/R by clinician and by payer — the numbers a group practice owner needs to decide which panels are worth staying on.

Why behavioral health claims get denied — and how we prevent it

Time-based codes with hard minute floors

90832 requires 16 minutes, 90834 requires 38, 90837 requires 53. A session note that says "about an hour" without start and stop times is a recoupment waiting to happen. We bill the code the documented time supports.

Telehealth modifiers and place of service

Video visits need modifier 95 with the right place of service (POS 10 for the patient at home, POS 02 elsewhere), and some payers still want GT. Audio-only has its own rules. One wrong combination rejects the whole day.

License type decides what is billable

What a psychiatrist, psychologist, LCSW, LMHC, LMFT or registered intern can bill — and to which payer — differs. Supervisee sessions are billable to some plans and never to others. We map each clinician to each payer's rules before claims go out.

The carve-out problem

The card says one insurer; the behavioral benefit is administered by another (Optum Behavioral, Carelon, Magellan and their peers). Claims sent to the medical plan come back denied weeks later. We route them right the first time.

Authorization and session limits

Testing hours, ABA units, IOP days and annual session caps run out quietly. We track remaining units per patient so care never outruns coverage.

Parity is a right, not a default

Under the federal parity law, behavioral benefits cannot be more restrictive than medical ones. Payers still apply stricter reviews to 90837 and testing. We document and dispute.

Every license type

Who we serve

One billing team across the behavioral spectrum, so a group that adds a prescriber or a testing psychologist does not need a second vendor.

Therapists and counselors

LCSW, LMHC, LMFT and LPC practices — solo and group — on commercial, Medicaid and carve-out panels.

Psychiatry and psychiatric NPs

E/M plus psychotherapy add-ons, medication management, TMS and Spravato where authorized.

Psychologists and testing practices

Psychological and neuropsychological testing units, authorizations and report timing.

ABA providers

97151–97158 assessment and treatment units tracked against each authorization.

Substance-use and IOP programs

H-code and program billing for Medicaid and commercial plans, facility or professional side.

Integrated and primary-care behavioral health

Collaborative care and behavioral services billed alongside the medical visit without stepping on it.

Billing and credentialing together

On the medical plan is not on the behavioral panel

The most common reason a new therapist's first month of claims denies is that the clinician was never enrolled with the carve-out that actually pays behavioral claims.

  • Carve-out enrollment — Optum Behavioral, Carelon, Magellan and the regional administrators, alongside the commercial, Medicare and Medicaid applications.
  • Published pricing — flat per-provider fees on our credentialing services page; no quotes.
  • Claims held, not lost — sessions delivered before the effective date are held and released the day enrollment is in writing.

Why group practices and solo clinicians choose ClaimCarePro

Clean claims on established accounts

Established accounts run a ~95% first-pass clean claim rate — time bands, modifiers and the right payer checked before anything leaves.

Every clinician billable from week one

Credentialing and billing in one team means a new therapist is enrolled on the panels that matter before the first appointment is scheduled.

Fees on what is collected

Ongoing billing is 6% of collections ($1,000/month minimum, month-to-month). No charge on what the payer does not pay, no setup fee.

A bench that scales with the group

A large bench of experienced part-time billers, scaled onto your account as the practice adds clinicians, plus AI automation that streamlines verification and posting.

How we take over your mental health billing

  1. 1

    Panel and payer audit

    We list every clinician, every license type and every panel they are on, and verify which behavioral carve-outs administer your patients' benefits.

  2. 2

    Clean-up of the open A/R

    Old denials and unbilled sessions are worked first. Aged behavioral A/R is recovered on a 15% contingency — no recovery, no fee.

  3. 3

    Verification and authorization workflow

    Benefits verified before intake, authorizations requested and tracked per patient, remaining units visible to your front desk.

  4. 4

    Coding review and submission

    Session time, modifiers, place of service and diagnosis checked against each payer's rules; claims submitted within 24–48 hours of the note being signed.

  5. 5

    Posting, follow-up and monthly reporting

    ERAs posted, denials worked within days, patient statements sent, and a monthly report by clinician and payer.

Mental health billing services: questions buyers ask

What are mental health billing services?
Mental health billing services are the claim submission, coding, benefit verification, authorization tracking, payment posting, denial management and patient statement work done for psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, counselors, social workers, ABA providers and substance-use programs. ClaimCarePro provides mental health billing services as one outsourced team that also handles credentialing on behavioral panels.
How much do mental health billing services cost?
ClaimCarePro charges 6% of collections for ongoing mental health billing services ($1,000/month minimum, month-to-month, no setup fee). Recovery of aged or denied claims is billed at a 15% contingency — if nothing is collected, nothing is owed. Credentialing is a published flat $250 per payer application ($1,750 new-practice bundle).
Who can bill for mental health services?
It depends on the payer and the state license. Psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, psychologists, licensed clinical social workers, licensed mental health counselors and marriage and family therapists are generally billable once enrolled on the payer's behavioral panel. Registered interns and pre-licensed clinicians are billable to some plans under supervision and not to others. We map every clinician to every payer before the first claim.
Which CPT codes do you bill for therapy and psychiatry?
Psychotherapy 90832 (30 minutes), 90834 (45) and 90837 (60); diagnostic evaluations 90791 and 90792; family therapy 90846 and 90847; group therapy 90853; crisis codes 90839 and 90840; interactive complexity 90785; E/M visits 99212–99215 with the psychotherapy add-ons 90833, 90836 and 90838; psychological and neuropsychological testing 96130–96139; ABA 97151–97158; plus the HCPCS H-codes Medicaid plans use for substance-use and community programs.
Do you bill telehealth therapy sessions?
Yes. Telehealth sessions are billed with modifier 95 (or GT where a payer still requires it) and the correct place of service — POS 10 when the patient is at home, POS 02 otherwise — and we track which payers cover audio-only visits and at what rate.
Do you handle credentialing for therapists and psychiatrists?
Yes. Behavioral health credentialing is often a separate panel from the medical plan, administered by a carve-out such as Optum Behavioral, Carelon or Magellan. We enroll clinicians with the carve-outs, commercial payers, Medicare and Medicaid, and keep CAQH and re-credentialing current. Pricing is published on our credentialing services page.
Can you bill ABA, IOP and substance-use programs?
Yes. We bill ABA assessment and treatment codes with the authorized units tracked per patient, intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization programs on the facility or professional side as the payer requires, and substance-use services under the HCPCS codes Medicaid and commercial plans specify.
How quickly can a therapy practice switch its billing to ClaimCarePro?
Most practices are live within two to four weeks: we audit panels and open A/R in week one, set up verification and authorization tracking in week two, and start submitting new claims while the old A/R is worked in parallel. Your EHR stays; we plug into it.

Related resources

Psychology billing services

The psychology-specific page: testing codes, session limits and documentation.

Credentialing services

Published per-provider pricing for payer enrollment, including behavioral carve-out panels.

Telehealth billing guide

Modifiers, place of service and audio-only rules for virtual visits.

See what your behavioral health A/R is actually worth

Send us 90 days of claims and we will show you the sessions that were never billed, the denials that can still be appealed, and the panels that pay you least.

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