AmeriHealth Caritas North Carolina administers the RB-BHT benefit as a Standard Plan, mapping its coverage decisions to the state Clinical Coverage Policies — including 8F for ABA. Fair warning on sourcing: AmeriHealth's provider site is aggressively bot-protected, so this guide leans on the state baseline plus the plan's published contact points, and flags the two documents your team should pull manually from the portal.
The clinical rules are the CCP 8F baseline: PA on all RB-BHT services including the assessment, authorization cycles tiered by intensity (180 calendar days at ≤16 hrs/week, 90 days above), treatment-plan reviews at each goal's target date (short-range goals no more than 12 months out) and whenever needs, provider or services change — the 8/1/2026 rewrite of subsection 5.3.4 removed the old fixed review-and-annual-rewrite cycle. AmeriHealth's own layer is a Clinical Coverage Policy Reference Tool mapping to the state policies, a Behavioral Health Utilization Management Guide (January 2025 edition), and a PA Lookup Tool for code-level checks. One thing to verify directly: AmeriHealth eliminated prior authorization on 240+ physical and behavioral-health codes effective January 1, 2025 — whether any 9715x codes made that list isn't publicly confirmed, so run your codes through the Lookup Tool rather than assuming.[5][6][2]
Because the plan's site blocks automated access, have your team download the current BH UM Guide and the PA Lookup results from the portal directly, and keep dated copies with your payer files.[5][6][2]
Code set: like every NC Medicaid plan, this one pays RB-BHT only under the CPT codes in CCP 8F Attachment A, 97151–97157, in 15-minute units. 97158, 0362T and 0373T are not covered, and no HCPCS H-code (H0031, H0032, H2014, H2019) is an RB-BHT code. The plan publishes no different code list. 96112 (developmental testing) is likewise not an RB-BHT code; NC Medicaid’s billing guidance lists it among procedure codes shared by physical and behavioral health.[5][6][2]
Closed by statute for RB-BHT. Session Law 2026-41 §9E.22 (approved July 7, 2026) amended G.S. 108D-22 so that "each PHP shall develop and maintain a closed network, and may exclude providers from that closed network" for peer support services and research-based behavioral health treatment services. That binds AmeriHealth Caritas North Carolina as an NC Medicaid Standard Plan. Being enrolled in NCTracks therefore no longer guarantees a contract.[7][14]
As of October 1, 2026 no AmeriHealth Caritas North Carolina notice on how it is applying the closed network was found. The Tailored Plans that have published one (Trillium, Vaya, Partners, Alliance) keep current contracted providers and review new applicants against network need. Ask AmeriHealth Caritas North Carolina provider contracting whether it is accepting new RB-BHT providers in your counties before you plan on it.[7][14]
North Carolina licenses the practice itself: “it shall be a violation of this Article for any individual not licensed under this Article to practice behavior analysis” (G.S. 90-746(a); a Class 2 misdemeanor under 90-746(b)), with exemptions for NC-licensed psychologists and for behavior technicians working under a licensed professional’s direction (G.S. 90-745). An analyst licensed elsewhere has two routes: a temporary license for one who “resides and practices behavior analysis in another state,” available “only if the behavior analysis services are to be delivered during a limited and defined period of service approved by the Board” (G.S. 90-740), and licensure by reciprocity for someone actively licensed in a state with comparable requirements that reciprocates with North Carolina (G.S. 90-741). Article 43 contains no telehealth exception, so plan on an NC license before treating a child located in North Carolina by video.[8][9][10][11]
For NC Medicaid the answer is now no for a new enrollee. Session Law 2026-1 added G.S. 108C-9(e): “Board Certified Behavior Analysts and Qualified Autism Services Practitioner Supervisors shall not be permitted to enroll in the North Carolina Medicaid program as out-of-state providers,” applying to enrollment applications submitted on or after the law took effect. NC Medicaid’s August 31, 2026 reminder restates it: all LQASPs and C-QPs, “including Board Certified Behavior Analysts and Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analysts, seeking to enroll in the NC Medicaid program must do so as an in-state provider,” effective August 2, 2026.[8][9][10][11]
Federal rules make the state Medicaid enrollment rule binding on the plan: the state “must screen and enroll, and periodically revalidate, all network providers” of Medicaid managed care plans (42 CFR 438.602(b)(1)). So a BCBA in AmeriHealth Caritas North Carolina’s network has to be enrolled with NC Medicaid as well.[8][9][10][11]
NC Medicaid’s rule binds the plans: CCP 8F (amended 8/1/2026) requires prior approval before RB-BHT services, says services provided without prior authorization “are not considered for payment or reimbursement except in the case of retroactive Medicaid eligibility,” and lists “services provided without prior authorization by the PHP” among the services Medicaid does not cover.[5][12]
AmeriHealth Caritas NC publishes the exceptions. Its provider manual says “A retrospective/post-service Utilization Management (UM) review will only be performed in the following circumstances: When the member obtains retroactive eligibility; When pertinent coverage information is not available, or is incorrect, upon admission or at the time of the service ...; When an out-of-state facility treats the member emergently/urgently; When a provider can show that attempts were made to submit the request prior to the service, but the plan did not receive the request.” Separately, ACNC “may conduct retrospective reviews of claims for services that did not receive prior authorization to determine medical necessity,” and when it does, it completes the review within 90 days of the date the claim is paid.[5][12]
AmeriHealth Caritas NC’s provider manual (Version 18, September 2026) says “All original paper and electronic claims must be submitted ACNC within 365 calendar days from the date services were rendered.” Corrected claims also go in within 365 days of the original date of service. Claims carrying a primary insurer’s EOB are due within 180 days of the EOB date.[12][2][1]
ACNC must tell the provider within 18 calendar days whether a medical claim is clean or pend it. It must pay or deny a clean medical claim within the lesser of 30 calendar days or the first scheduled reimbursement cycle after adjudication, and pay a pended claim within 30 days of receiving the missing information. The manual lists the National Provider Identifier (NPI) and taxonomy among the required claim elements.[12][2][1]
EVV does not apply to RB-BHT: NC Medicaid’s billing guidance lists the services “subject to EVV for Managed Care” as Personal Care, Home Health, Innovations Waiver, TBI and 1915(i) services (§3.52).[12][2][1]
Taxonomy: the plan must “validate the taxonomy code submitted on the claim” against the provider’s NC Medicaid enrollment record and “price claims based on the taxonomy code submitted on the claim” (billing guidance §3.22), so bill the taxonomy you are enrolled under in NCTracks.[12][2][1]
Referring or ordering NPI: not required on an RB-BHT claim. NC Medicaid’s OPR guidance lists the claim types that need an ordering NPI (home infusion, private duty nursing, labs, IDTF, CAP, radiology, DME, LEA) or a referring NPI (home infusion, specialized therapy, hospice, home health, PDN, dialysis, CAP, LEA), and RB-BHT is not on either list. The physician or psychologist who signs the service order must still be enrolled in NC Medicaid (42 CFR 455.410).[12][2][1]
Disputes and appeals: claim denials go through ACNC’s provider grievance process, filed in NaviNet (Forms and Dashboards → grievance), through Provider Services at 1-888-738-0004, or by mail to Provider Grievances, PO Box 7379, London, KY 40742-7379. Formal provider appeals, covering overpayment findings, payment withholds, contract violations and grievances not resolved to the provider’s satisfaction, are due “within 30 calendar days from the date on which … the provider received written notice from ACNC of the decision.” The manual sets no separate filing deadline for a claim grievance.[12][2][1]
The questions that decide whether a family can start with AmeriHealth Caritas North Carolina, and what they have to bring. Each maps onto something intake should ask on the first call.
Follows the NC Medicaid rule: CCP 8F carries no upper age bound (the 8/1/2026 rewrite removed "under 21 years of age" from the eligibility provision), under-21 members carry the EPSDT special provision, and beneficiaries under three may start on a provisional diagnosis.[5]
Follows the NC Medicaid rule: no expiry on the ASD diagnosis itself, but a provisional under-3 diagnosis must become non-provisional within six months, an adaptive behavior assessment must be under 3 years old, and diagnostic documentation must be verified and on file before services start.[5]
Follows the NC Medicaid rule: a non-provisional ASD diagnosis comes from a Licensed Psychologist, a supervised Licensed Psychological Associate, or a physician (MD or DO); a Licensed School Psychologist evaluation may be used where the required testing is included; a provisional under-3 diagnosis may also come from a trained master’s-level licensed clinician within scope.[5]
Follows the NC Medicaid rule: the ASD diagnosis must use BOSA, Tele-ASD-Peds, ADOS-2, or CARS2-ST/CARS2-HF; screeners, educational determinations and informal impressions cannot start services. The packet also needs a skills assessment (VB-MAPP, ABLLS-R or ESDM Curriculum Checklist), an FBA where challenging behaviors are targeted, and an adaptive behavior assessment within 3 years (VABS-3, ABAS-3 or DP-4).[5]
Follows the NC Medicaid rule: a service order signed and dated by a Licensed MD, DO or Licensed Psychologist, in place on or before the first date of service, based on a behavioral/adaptive/functional assessment and treatment plan, valid one year and re-ordered annually. 97151 and 97152 need no service order for prior approval; 97153–97157 do.[5]
Follows the NC Medicaid rule (Attachment A, eff. 8/1/2026): GT telehealth is billable for 97151 with clinical justification and for 97155 up to 50% of total 97155 billing per beneficiary per 180 days; telehealth is removed entirely for 97152, 97153 and 97154; 97156 and 97157 remain telehealth eligible and are the only KX telephonic services, on a documented caregiver health or access barrier. NC Medicaid’s billing guidance binds the plan to the same edit: “Claims submitted with Modifier GT (Telehealth) for 97152 - 97154 are not reimbursable and should be denied” (v36 §3.54.1). Telehealth claims carry the provider’s usual place-of-service code (8F Attachment A), and 8F does not require the telehealth modality to be named on the authorization.[5][2]
AmeriHealth Caritas’ manual (Version 18, revision log 9/17/2026) now says standard decisions come "no later than 7 calendar days after ACNC receives the request", extendable up to 14 more calendar days when the provider or member asks or ACNC justifies the need, and expedited decisions "no later than 72 hours after receipt of the request for service" (also extendable up to 14 calendar days). That matches the federal managed-care ceiling for rating periods starting on or after January 1, 2026, which reaches NC plans from July 1, 2026. Its January 2025 BH UM Guide still lists 14 calendar days for RB-BHT under 8F, so treat that guide as out of date. A missed deadline counts as an adverse benefit determination the family can appeal. No reauthorization lead time is published; CCP 8F requires the reauth before the current authorization expires.[12][6][15][16][5]
ACNC pays last: "health care providers are required to bill the Primary Insurer first and obtain an Explanation of Benefits (EOB) or Claim Adjustment Reason Codes (CARC)" and claims carrying the primary EOB must reach ACNC "within 180 days of the date on the primary insurer's EOB." ACNC "will pay and then chase" for EPSDT, "Diagnostic and Treatment (Medical Necessity) after Early and Periodic Screening", and child support enforcement. The manual does not say whether its own prior authorization is still needed when it pays second; CCP 8F requires prior approval before rendering RB-BHT and carves out no exception for members with other insurance, so get the plan’s authorization on file unless the plan confirms in writing that it is waived. Under federal rules TRICARE pays before Medicaid and CHAMPVA pays first when the child is also Medicaid-eligible.[12][5][17][18]
Coverage decides whether AmeriHealth Caritas North Carolina pays. These decide whether the claim survives: how sessions must be staffed and supervised, what may be billed concurrently, the per-day ceilings, who signs the note, where the service is payable, and whose NPI the claim goes out under.
Follows the NC Medicaid rule: at least 10% of paraprofessional-delivered services must involve LQASP observation and direction, and above 200 paraprofessional hours per 180 days the LQASP-to-paraprofessional ratio must sit between 10% and 20%, documented in the treatment plan with deviations clinically justified. Incidental supervision is not billable. Neither CCP 8F nor the plan’s own manual caps how many paraprofessionals one LQASP may supervise; the limits are the per-beneficiary 10% floor and 10–20% band.[5]
Follows the NC Medicaid rule: 97153 or 97154 may be billed concurrently with 97155 when a paraprofessional delivers the direct service under an eligible provider’s observation, but a single rendering provider may not bill 97153/97154 and 97155 simultaneously. 97151, 97152, 97156 and 97157 allow no concurrent billing, and non-RB-BHT services may not be billed for the same clock time. Follows the NC Medicaid rule here too. ABA alongside speech, occupational or physical therapy: Policy 8F (amended 8/1/2026) §4.2.1(n) does not cover "non-RB-BHT Medicaid services billed at the same time as RB-BHT service (as reflected in the session note …). Same-day delivery is allowable." So a speech, OT or PT visit may fall on the same day as ABA, but not on the same clock time as a billed RB-BHT session — and the session note, which must record session time in and out (§5.5.1), is what shows the two did not overlap. §4.1(c) separately excludes any service that duplicates another provider's service.[5]
Two different ceilings. Per day, a claim edit: NC Medicaid applies the CMS Medicaid National Correct Coding Initiative to professional claims, including Medically Unlikely Edits — units-of-service edits that define for each CPT or HCPCS code "the number of units of service that is unlikely to be correct" — and its billing guidance tells every health plan to apply NCCI and MUE edits as well (§3.6.2). AmeriHealth’s provider manual (Version 18) bases its prospective claim edits on CMS and other industry sources without listing ABA values. The public CMS Medicaid NCCI practitioner MUE table for dates of service 10/1–12/31/2026 sets these maxima per beneficiary per date of service: 97151 32 units, 97152 16, 97153 32 (8 hours), 97154 18, 97155 24, 97156 16, 97157 16, 97158 16, 0362T 16 and 0373T 32. Units above the MUE on one date of service deny as a claim edit whatever the authorization allows; the authorization, not the MUE, is the real weekly limit. Per authorization period, the NC Medicaid rule (CCP 8F sets no per-day cap of its own): 180-day cycles at or under 16 hours a week, 90-day cycles above it), with the 50% 97155 telehealth cap and the six-caregiver-training minimum per 180 days. AmeriHealth publishes no plan-specific ABA unit table; because the plan removed prior authorization from 240+ codes effective January 1, 2025 without publicly confirming whether any 9715x codes were included, run the planned codes through the plan’s PA Lookup Tool rather than assuming.[5][6][2][3][12]
Follows the NC Medicaid rule: the staff member who delivered the service signs the note with credentials (professional) or job title (paraprofessional), and an LQASP or C-QP is not required to countersign a note written by non-LQASP/C-QP staff. A full note is required per contact per date of service with the elements listed in 8F subsection 5.5.1, and the treatment plan is signed and dated by the LQASP and the consenting party before services begin.[5]
Follows the NC Medicaid rule: clinic, home, school and community settings are all payable in any combination, individually justified and documented in the treatment plan, with the goal of advancing toward natural settings. IDEA-duplicative school services are excluded, and telehealth or telephonic claims carry the provider’s usual place-of-service code.[5]
Follows the NC Medicaid rule: a professional CMS-1500/837P claim through the plan, with Attachment B fixing which provider type may render each code; behavior technicians must hold RBT or ABAT certification within 120 calendar days of hire or of the agency’s first Medicaid enrollment, and all LQASPs and C-QPs must enroll as in-state NC providers as of August 2, 2026.[5]
Yes — as a Standard Plan it administers NC Medicaid's RB-BHT benefit under Clinical Coverage Policy 8F, with prior authorization per the state baseline. Confirm code-level rules in the plan's PA Lookup Tool.
UM runs at (888) 738-0004; the provider workflow uses NaviNet and the PA Lookup Tool at amerihealthcaritasnc.com. The January 2025 Behavioral Health UM Guide has the current details — pull it from the portal.
For RB-BHT, NC law has required a closed network since July 7, 2026 (S.L. 2026-41 §9E.22), so AmeriHealth Caritas North Carolina may decline new providers. It had published no notice on how it is applying this as of October 1, 2026; ask its provider contracting team directly.
AmeriHealth Caritas NC applies CCP 8F, which does not say an authorization transfers. CCP 8F treats needing "a different RB-BHT provider agency" as a transition or discharge reason, requires the Treatment Plan to be reviewed on a change in service provider, bases prior approval on the Treatment Plan submitted with the request, and will not pay two providers for duplicate services. Expect the new agency to submit its own request, and confirm with AmeriHealth Caritas NC utilization management.
North Carolina requires an NC license to practice behavior analysis (G.S. 90-746), with no telehealth exception; temporary and reciprocity licenses exist (G.S. 90-740, 90-741). NC Medicaid no longer enrolls BCBAs as out-of-state providers (G.S. 108C-9(e)), and plan network providers must be enrolled with the state (42 CFR 438.602(b)(1)).
Only in its listed cases: retroactive eligibility, coverage information missing or wrong at the time of service, emergent out-of-state facility care, or proof you tried to submit before the service and the plan did not receive it.
365 calendar days from the date of service for original and corrected claims, and 180 days from the primary insurer’s EOB date when ACNC pays second (provider manual, Version 18).
Yes. Its provider manual lists NPI and taxonomy among the required claim elements.
Payer policies change frequently and vary by plan, state, and funding type. This guide was compiled from the sources above and last reviewed October 2026; it is general information, not billing, legal, or clinical advice. Always verify current requirements against the payer's live policy and a benefits check for the specific member.
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