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Clinicians, advocates press for higher pay, billing carve‑out to expand psychiatric collaborative care
Summary
Representatives and clinicians urged the committee to boost reimbursement and remove billing barriers for psychiatric collaborative care, asking that codes be reimbursed at no less than Medicare rates and be billable outside MassHealth primary‑care subcaps so practices can sustain staffing.
Representatives, clinicians and provider groups told the joint committee that psychiatric collaborative care — a team‑based model that pairs a primary‑care clinician with a behavioral‑health care manager and a consulting psychiatrist — consistently improves mental‑health outcomes and reduces downstream costs. Supporters asked the committee to require payment at no less than Medicare rates and to allow use of collaborative‑care CPT codes (including the 99492/99493/99494 series) outside of MassHealth’s primary‑care subcapitated payments so practices can sustain staffing.
Dr. Wayne Altman described a common workflow: “Patient comes to us in crisis needing mental health care... I instead walked them down the hall to meet Cassie, our care…
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