Credentialing Reminder for Mental Health Care Providers Now Eligible for Medicare Participation

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

As of Jan. 1, 2024, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) allows licensed professional counselors (LPC), marriage and family therapists (MFT) and mental health counselors (MHC) to bill Medicare independently to diagnose and treat mental illness. To align with CMS guidelines, Health Net Federal Services, LLC (HNFS) has updated our credentialing process for LPCs, MFTs and MHCs. We encourage you to visit the CMS website at www.cms.gov to learn more about how to become a Medicare provider.

Network Participation Requirements

Network providers must agree to all terms of HNFS’ provider participation agreements. One of these terms is that providers who are eligible to participate in Medicare must:

• Have a signed Medicare CMS-460 Agreement,
  
  or
  
  
• Agree to participate with Medicare on a claim-by-claim basis for dual-eligible (TRICARE and Medicare) beneficiaries.

HNFS will look for Medicare enrollment or per-claim agreements for LPCs, MFTs and MHCs as part of our credentialing process.

Visit our Mental Health page for more information on TRICARE’s mental health care coverage.