By Danielle Wagar, CPES | Upstate Healthcare Admin Here is a scenario that plays out in mental health practices regularly: a provider completes Medicare enrollment, receives their PTAN, and starts seeing Medicare patients. A few months in, they notice some Medicare patients have cards that say Humana, UnitedHealthcare, or Aetna. Claims are submitting to the wrong payer. Prior authorization requirements keep appearing unexpectedly. The answer is that Medicare is not one thing.

By Danielle Wagar, CPES | Upstate Healthcare Admin Medicare enrollment is one of the most misunderstood processes in mental health private practice. Providers avoid it because it feels complicated. They delay it because they do not know where to start. And then they refer out every Medicare client for years — clients who could have been seen in their practice. This guide breaks down exactly how Medicare enrollment works for mental health providers. Who This Applies To Medicar