top of page

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Find Out More

I WANT TO OPEN A PRIVATE PRACTICE, AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE TO START, HELP!

We recommend doing the following steps first before you reach out to insurance companies for contracts: 

  1. Go to your board's website and make sure you file as a firm.  This is a step that is often overlooked and can have financial penalties.

  2. Get an NPI II for your entity on the NPPES website - this will make it much easier in the long run to add clinicians, should you decide to hire an employee or a contractor

  3. Get a Tax ID Number from the IRS - this is free on the IRS website.  If you would like to enroll as a provider with Medicare, make sure your practice address is the same as the legal entity address you have registered with the IRS - Medicare will require this. 

  4. Register your LLC with the State of Minnesota, also register a DBA name with the State of Minnesota if you are opting to use a different business name than the one you originally filed with

  5. Get a business bank account.  Your business bank account will need to have the same address as your practice if you intend to enroll with Medicare

  6. Make sure you have active professional liability insurance and general commercial liability insurance.  The required limits are $1,000,000 per occurrence, $3,000,000 aggregate. 

  7. Establish a business website, administrative phone number, and email address

  8. Make sure your psychology today profile and business website highlight the niche diagnoses and populations you work with

WHAT PAYERS ARE OFFERING OR NOT OFFERING CONTRACTS RIGHT NOW IN THE STATE OF MINNESOTA? HOW MUCH DO THEY REIMBURSE?

The following payers are offering contracts - Fee Schedules are Not Negotiable: 

1. Minnesota Health Care Programs (MHCP - straight medicaid). The MHCP Mental Health fee schedule is publicly available on the DHS website.   

2. Ucare (will not contract for telehealth only) - fee schedule is based on MHCP MH fee schedule

3. Optum (the optum umbrella includes UBH, UHC, UMR, UHC PMAP, Medica) - Optum periodically does rate reviews of their own accord, and may increase rates upon review

4. Hennepin Health (must be in Hennepin County)

5. Prime West

6. South Country Health Alliance

​

Please note it is against the law for us (and contract holders) to discuss specifics about practice contracts, including fee schedules. 

​

The following payers have closed networks for masters-level behavioral health providers in the MN 7-county metro area.

Metro area = Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott and Washington counties. We have also seen denials for PHD level providers within the 7-county metro area.  These payers may make exceptions if you represent and/or predominantly serve historically underrepresented client populations.  The client populations they ask about include children and adolescents, elderly, veterans, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and first responders/health care workers.  Must be open 40 hours a week, must be in a commercial office space, and must be offering in person services.  

​

1. BCBS of MN (includes Blue Plus PMAP)

Check their website to see if they are accepting applications for your specialty: https://www.bluecrossmn.com/providers/join-our-network

2. HealthPartners (includes HP Care PMAP)

​

Both BCBS and HP provide fee schedules upon request to contracted entities only, and will not disclose rates to anyone who is not an approved contact. 

​

​

bottom of page