MedCost is a Carolinas benefits company with two businesses that both show up on ID cards: MedCost Benefit Services administers self-funded employer health plans (it says it serves more than 600 employers across the Carolinas and Virginia, pitches itself to self-funded companies with 50 or more employees, and sells a level-funded product to smaller employers), and the MedCost Network is a provider network that other payers lease. So the first intake question is who the payer is. The second is the employer group, because on a self-funded plan the employer's plan document, not a MedCost policy, decides whether ABA is covered and on what terms.
A MedCost logo does not always mean MedCost pays the claim. MedCost says payer partners "lease our provider network in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia" and that "To identify the payer, you will need to consult the member ID card"; its published list of payer partners runs to several dozen third-party administrators and insurers. When MedCost Benefit Services is the payer, benefits, eligibility and claim status are in its provider portal; if you cannot tell who administers an employer's plan, MedCost's provider contact center (1-800-824-7406) will help identify it.[5][6][8][4][9]
When MedCost Benefit Services is the administrator, the plan is almost always self-funded: MedCost describes its clients as self-funded companies with 50 or more employees in NC, SC or VA, and sells a level-funded arrangement (a claims reserve with stop-loss) to smaller employers. MedCost's own medical policies "apply only to health benefit plans administered by MedCost Benefit Services", and "In the event of conflicting information between MedCost Medical Policy and a member's Summary Plan Description (SPD), the SPD will govern unless language within the SPD explicitly defers to Medical Policy." Capture the employer name and group number at intake and verify against that group: two families holding MedCost cards can have different ABA benefits.[5][6][8][4][9]
MedCost says "Some benefit plans include precertification requirements" and "If a member's benefit plan includes any precertification requirements, it will be indicated on the member's ID card." It runs two outpatient review programs, Advanced Imaging and Comprehensive Outpatient Review. The Comprehensive Outpatient Review list (January 2025) includes the ABA treatment codes 97153, 97154, 97155, 97156, 97157, 97158 and 0373T; the assessment codes 97151, 97152 and 0362T are not on it. Where MedCost is the precertification contact on the card, call 800-722-2157 and select option 2, or fax 336-970-2098. MedCost adds that "Precertification is not a guarantee of payment" — the plan document still decides coverage and limits.[1][2]
MedCost's provider manual (October 2025) says that however a member reaches the MedCost NC/SC Network — through a TPA that leases it or through MedCost Benefit Services itself — the ID card carries Medical EDI 56162 for electronic claims (54138 for the MedCost Virginia network), and that MedCost NC/SC takes electronic claims through Availity as its exclusive EDI gateway. A card administered by MedCost Benefit Services carries the MBS logo; a leased-network card carries the MedCost Network logo and the other administrator's details. Leased-payer claims without a group number are rejected. Network providers file within 90 days of the date of service, extended to 180 days for North Carolina fully insured plans under G.S. 58-3-225. Coordination of benefits is the claim administrator's job, and network providers must file claims for all MedCost plans regardless of the order of benefit determination.[3]
N.C.G.S. § 58-3-192 requires health benefit plans to cover the screening, diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorder, including "adaptive behavior treatment", which must be ordered by a licensed physician or licensed psychologist and provided or supervised by one of eight listed professionals (a board certified behavior analyst among them). Adaptive behavior treatment may be capped at $40,000 a year, indexed to CPI from 2017, and may be limited to people 18 or younger. Coverage cannot be denied because treatment is habilitative or educational, and cost sharing may be no less favourable than for substantially all medical services. The mandate does not apply to non-grandfathered individual and small-group plans that must cover essential health benefits, and "health benefit plan" (G.S. 58-3-167) excludes the State Health Plan and reaches other benefit arrangements only "to the extent permitted by" ERISA — so a self-funded private employer plan administered by MedCost generally answers to its own plan document and federal law instead. Government employers are a separate case (ERISA does not govern their plans), so ask rather than assume.[10][11]
North Carolina licenses behavior analysts through the NC Behavior Analyst Licensure Board: a Licensed Behavior Analyst application needs a current BCBA or QBA certificate, a $250 application fee, a $14 criminal-history-check fee with a fingerprint card, and a Castle Branch background check (package VN90). MedCost publishes no ABA fee schedule publicly — rates for network providers sit behind its provider login — so treat reimbursement as part of network contracting.[12][13]
The questions that decide whether a family can start with MedCost Benefit Services, and what they have to bring. Each maps onto something intake should ask on the first call.
Set by the employer plan document. MedCost publishes no ABA age limit of its own in anything public. Where North Carolina's mandate reaches the plan, it allows adaptive behavior treatment to be limited to people 18 or younger — a quantitative limit that federal parity law constrains on group plans — but a self-funded private employer plan generally sits outside the mandate.[10][4]
Ask the plan: Benefits check against the employer group (MedCost provider portal, or 1-800-824-7406 to identify the administrator); ask for any ABA age limit in the plan document.
Plan-dependent. MedCost publishes no referral rule for ABA. On a plan the North Carolina mandate reaches, adaptive behavior treatment must be ordered by a licensed physician or licensed psychologist; a self-funded plan sets its own rule in the plan document.[10][4]
Ask the plan: Ask at benefits verification whether the plan requires a physician or psychologist order for ABA; collect one regardless.
MedCost publishes no ABA turnaround, so the clock depends on the plan type. A self-funded private employer plan follows the ERISA claims rule: a pre-service decision "not later than 15 days after receipt of the claim by the plan", extendable once by up to 15 days, and an urgent one "not later than 72 hours after receipt". A fully insured North Carolina policy follows G.S. 58-50-61(f): prospective and concurrent determinations within "three business days after the insurer obtains all necessary information", and in concurrent review the insurer "shall remain liable for health care services until the covered person has been notified of the noncertification." Government employer plans follow their own plan document.[14][15][1]
Ask the plan: Ask MedCost precert (800-722-2157 option 2) its expected turnaround for ABA and how early it wants the reauthorization request.
Set by the employer plan document for a self-funded plan. MedCost's provider manual says "It is the responsibility of the claim administrator to handle all coordination of benefits" and that network providers "are required to file claims for all MedCost plans regardless of the order of benefit determination" — so file with MedCost even when it may be secondary. Federal program rules still sort government coverage: TRICARE is secondary to other health plans ("secondary payer to all health benefit, insurance and third-party payer plans") but primary to Medicaid; CHAMPVA "is the last payer to" other health insurance; and Medicaid pays after other liable third parties, so a MedCost plan pays before Medicaid for a child with both.[3][16][17][18]
Ask the plan: Collect both parents' plans, dates of birth and any custody order at intake; confirm primary/secondary with MedCost customer service before the first claim.
Unverified. No MedCost ABA medical policy could be opened (the policies sit behind member and employer logins), and the plan's Summary Plan Description governs where it differs.[4]
Blocked on: MedCost's ABA / autism medical policy and the member's SPD; ask at precert whether a diagnostic report must be recent.
Unverified at MedCost. Where the state mandate applies, it defines ASD by the current DSM or ICD and requires treatment to be ordered by a licensed physician or licensed psychologist; it does not itself restrict who makes the diagnosis.[10][4]
Blocked on: MedCost's ABA / autism medical policy (behind the Medical Policies login) and the member's SPD.
Unverified — no MedCost statement on required diagnostic instruments was found in its public pages.[4]
Blocked on: MedCost's ABA / autism medical policy (behind the Medical Policies login).
Unverified — MedCost publishes no ABA telehealth rule in its public pages; telehealth coverage follows the employer plan document.[4]
Ask the plan: Ask at benefits verification whether ABA codes are covered by telehealth under this group, and which modifier and place-of-service code to bill.
Coverage decides whether MedCost Benefit Services 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.
Plan-dependent — any hour, visit or dollar limit on ABA is written into the employer's plan document; MedCost publishes none of its own.[4]
Ask the plan: Ask at benefits verification for any ABA hour, visit or dollar limit under this group.
Plan-dependent — MedCost publishes no ABA place-of-service rule, so covered settings follow the plan document. Where the North Carolina mandate reaches the plan, coverage may not be denied because treatment is habilitative or educational in nature.[10][4]
Ask the plan: Ask at benefits verification whether home, clinic, school and community sessions are covered under this group.
Unverified — no MedCost ABA supervision standard was found in its public pages.[4]
Blocked on: MedCost's ABA / autism medical policy (behind the Medical Policies login) and the member's SPD.
Unverified — MedCost publishes no public rule on billing 97153 and 97155 for the same time.[4]
Blocked on: MedCost's ABA medical policy or provider reference guide (behind the provider login).
Unverified — no MedCost documentation standard for ABA session notes was found in its public pages.[4]
Blocked on: MedCost's ABA medical policy or provider reference guide (behind the provider login).
Unverified — MedCost publishes no public rule on whether technician services bill under the supervising BCBA's NPI or the technician's own.[13]
Blocked on: MedCost provider reference guide (behind the provider login) or MedCost credentialing.
It depends on the employer plan. MedCost Benefit Services administers mostly self-funded employer plans, and its medical policies yield to the plan's Summary Plan Description, so the employer decides whether ABA is covered and on what terms. Verify against the employer group, not the carrier.
Only if the member's plan includes a precertification program, which is shown on the ID card. Under MedCost's Comprehensive Outpatient Review (January 2025 list), 97153–97158 and 0373T should be pre-certified; the assessment codes 97151, 97152 and 0362T are not on the list. Call 800-722-2157 option 2 when MedCost is the precert contact.
Often not. N.C.G.S. § 58-3-192 applies to "health benefit plans", a term that reaches other benefit arrangements only to the extent ERISA allows, so a self-funded private employer plan generally follows its own plan document. Establish funding type and employer type first.
MedCost leases its provider network to dozens of other administrators and insurers. The ID card shows who the payer is; if it is unclear, MedCost's provider contact center (1-800-824-7406) can help identify the claim administrator.
Payer policies change frequently and vary by plan, state, and funding type. This guide was compiled from the sources above and last reviewed September 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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