BHI Guide: 2026 Codes, Requirements & Billing Rules

What is Behavioral Health Integration (BHI)?

Behavioral Health Integration (BHI) is a set of Medicare services for patients with a mental, behavioral, or psychiatric condition that needs systematic assessment, care planning, and coordination alongside their medical care. General BHI and the Psychiatric Collaborative Care Model (CoCM) are different models.

Which patients qualify for BHI?

The patient has an identified behavioral, mental-health, or psychiatric condition that the treating team will manage in an integrated model.
The patient would benefit from systematic follow-up, a care plan, and connection between medical and behavioral-health providers.
The partner has selected either general BHI or CoCM and can meet that model's personnel, time, assessment, consent, and documentation requirements.

What are the BHI codes?

The BHI codes are 99484, G0323, 99492, 99493, 99494 and G2214.

Code	Covers	2026 national office benchmark
99484	General BHI: 20+ qualifying staff minutes / month	$57.45 / patient month
G0323	General BHI: Specified psychologist / social-worker pathway	$57.78 / patient month
99492	Psychiatric collaborative care: Initial month: 70 minutes	$160.32 / patient month
99493	Psychiatric collaborative care: Following month: 60 minutes	$144.96 / patient month
99494	Psychiatric collaborative care: Each additional 30 minutes	$61.46 / additional 30 min
G2214	Psychiatric collaborative care: Shorter initial / following month	$60.79 / patient month

General BHI and psychiatric collaborative care are different models. The CoCM team and psychiatric-consultant arrangements must be confirmed separately. The estimator covers selected base services only.

2026 Medicare allowed amounts, national office/nonfacility benchmark, non-QP conversion factor. Includes applicable patient cost sharing; before practice costs and MySeema fees. Actual collections vary with location, setting, clinician, coverage, and claim adjustments. See the rate source and estimate your practice.

BHI billing rules

This estimate models general BHI (99484): at least 20 completed minutes per calendar month.
Document consent, applicable initiating visit, assessment/monitoring, care plan, treatment coordination and continuing care-team relationship.
General BHI and psychiatric collaborative-care codes must not be billed for the same patient/month.
Time must be distinct from CCM or other separately billed services.

Patient cost sharing and protections depend on coverage and the service. Explain them before consent. RHC/FQHC payment rules and Medicare Advantage contracts differ from the national benchmark.

What a practice needs before starting BHI

Explicit selection of general BHI or CoCM
Confirmed treating practitioner and qualified care-team roles
Behavioral-health assessment, care-plan, monitoring, and reassessment workflow
Crisis and patient-safety escalation path
Consent, documentation, time, and billing review for the selected model

Who does what in a supported BHI program

Your practice or organization

Diagnose and treat the behavioral-health condition, direct the care model, and remain involved through reassessment.
Provide the properly qualified care-team roles; CoCM specifically requires a treating practitioner, behavioral-health care manager, and psychiatric consultant.
Establish crisis and safety escalation, validated assessment, consent, registry or tracking needs, documentation, and billing.

A support partner such as MySeema

Support patient engagement, appointments, referrals, and assigned care-plan follow-through within the confirmed BHI model.
Track outreach and practical barriers, and maintain a continuous coordination relationship when assigned by the partner.
Document the work and route changes in symptoms, safety concerns, or lack of progress through the partner's clinical protocol.

Your clinicians keep clinical decisions and oversight, and your organization bills eligible services.

What changes for BHI in 2027?

The benchmarks on this page are 2026 amounts. Medicare’s 2027 conversion factor is lower ($32.63 for most clinicians, down 2.31%), so 2027 payment amounts will differ. Read what the 2027 fee schedule changes.

Common questions about BHI

Are general BHI and CoCM the same?

No. CMS describes general BHI as models other than CoCM and allows it to operate without a psychiatric consultant. CoCM has a defined team that includes a psychiatric consultant and behavioral-health care manager.

Does MySeema provide the psychiatric consultant for CoCM?

That capability is not confirmed by the approved MySeema source. Any CoCM proposal must separately identify and verify the psychiatric consultant and every other required team role before launch.

Is administrative scheduling enough to qualify as BHI?

No. BHI is a clinical care-management service with defined assessment, planning, monitoring, personnel, time, and documentation requirements. Purely administrative or clerical activity does not establish the service.

This guide summarizes Medicare requirements for planning. It is not a billing manual or a promise of reimbursement. Confirm requirements with your billing and compliance teams.

Behavioral Health Integration (BHI): codes, requirements, and how it works